Development of evaluation materials and best practices for the Farm to School Program in La Crosse County, Wisconsin -- a pilot study

Abstract

As a means of providing students with comprehensive nutrition education and nutritious food options from regional growers while attempting to prevent and reverse childhood obesity trends, Farm to School (F2S) programs have become increasingly common across the United States in recent years. The La Crosse County Health Department (LCHD) recently received Federal funding to oversee the development, implementation and evaluation of F2S programs in four school districts during a two-year period, from March 2010 to March 2012. Due to the relative newness of the F2S approach, both rigorous evaluation tools and methods, and best practices for program evaluation are limited. Through a collaborative process with the F2S team, the La Crosse school district nutrition services staff and two elementary schools, and the University of Wisconsin La Crosse Health Education and Health Promotion Department, a parent survey tool, a student focus group interview guide and a plate waste procedure were developed and piloted. The resulting materials were combined to form a toolkit, including recommendations and best practices for conducting comprehensive F2S program evaluation within La Crosse County, WI and implications for use in F2S program evaluation across the Nation. Key words: Farm to School, program evaluation, nutrition education, plate waste, survey development, focus group, community-academic.