This project is a collaboration among several organizations essential to success.
Five states are participating in the Obesity Mini CoIIN. The states, their focus and resources developed are listed below.
Alabama is running its newly developed Farm to ECE Learning Collaboratives. AL built its learning collaborative based on survey results and focus group feedback. They developed needed training materials and resources to create a comprehensive collaborative to launch Spring 2020.
Arizona is developing and testing farm to ECE online trainings addressing farm to ECE procurement, nutrition and agriculture education in the ECE, and gardening. The Arizona team will follow pilot sites to assess knowledge acquisition and implementation.
Colorado created a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) pilot to optimize ECEs ability to procure and use local foods from a regional food hub. The CSA pilot included surveys that identified ECE barriers and growth opportunities that CO is now working to address to improve their CSA model.
Minnesota is working to increase the number and scale of Farm to ECE initiatives by leveraging the Statewide Health Improvement Partnership (SHIP) network. They are creating and adapting resources to expand SHIP staff’s knowledge of and capacity to support Farm to ECE.
Ohio held a statewide Farm to ECE needs assessment with over 1,600 respondents. Assessment findings will refine OH’s farm to ECE trainings, messaging, and technical assistance. OH also expanded the state’s 2020 “Great Apple Crunch” with over 300,000 participants. They will build on this success and expand the program further.