Download Master Food Volunteer Program

FCS Master Volunteer Program Team
November 10, 2009
Albemarle County Office Building, Charlottesville, VA
Minutes
Committee Members:
Subcommittees::
:
Curriculum Committee:
Kim Elkins
*Anne-Carter Carrington
Melissa Chase
Linda Cole
Dr. Karen Gehrt, Associate Director, FCS
Judith Stevens, Interim Team Leader
Joan Wages, Re–Appointed Team Leader
Finance Committee:
Judy Stevens
Beverly Samuel
Donna McBride
Tracy Nedza
Technology:
*Brittany Wilkins
*Absent
1. Presentation of Northern District Master Food Volunteer (MFV) Pilot Program
Kim Elkins, Jill Garth, Tracy Nedza and Beverly Samuel presented information on the
pilot MFV program that was conducted in October 2009 by a Team of FCS Agents in
the Northern District.
Overview
Kim began by giving an overview of the program with a PowerPoint presentation.
Seven FCS agents were involved in the project, A 30 hour training program was
developed, including 28 classroom hours and 2 homework hours. In addition to the
seven FCS agents, nine guest speakers provided portions of the training, including a
representative from the Egg Board and a representative from the Apple Council.
Twenty-nine volunteers completed the training program which was provided in four
weekly sessions in October 2009. The program was conducted using donated space at
a church site in Fredericksburg, which included a state of the art commercial kitchen, a
large multi-purpose room and meeting room space. Costs of the program included
breakfast food and beverage items, supplies for cooking activities and lunch
preparation, incentive items (aprons and bags), Participants were charged $45 for the
program. A Svoboda Grant of $1500 was secured to support the program expense, and
food was donated by several supermarkets as well as commodity groups. Participants
completed a knowledge assessment and a post program survey to assess behavior
change intentions and satisfaction with the program. A 3 and 6 month post program
survey to assess behavior change is planned as well.
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Beverly shared the various elements of the MFV Participant Manual, as well as the
agent handbook and curriculum manual. The Northern District (ND) Team plans to give
all of these materials to Joan to post for agent in other Districts to use. There was some
discussion as to the best place to post the materials and it was agreed that the VCE
Intranet would be the best place but that a password should be required for access.
Marketing
Beverly shared the marketing materials developed by the ND Team, including a
program brochure, a press release and a radio public service announcement. Each
agent made his/her own decisions about how to promote the program in his/her area.
Program promotion efforts were successful. About ten people are currently on a waiting
list to participate in a future MFV program. The only barrier observed to participation in
the program reported thus far has been the time commitment.
Transportation decisions were made by each agent, based on local resources. Some
agents used county vans and some carpooled with participants. ND agents indicated
that it is important to make decisions and plans about transportation and the associated
costs prior to program promotion.
Beverly reported that one of the greatest challenges in planning the program was to find
a suitable location at little or no cost. ND agents felt very fortunate to be given free use
of the state of the art meeting and kitchen space at Fairview at River Club church.
Pricing
The program was advertised at $45.00 per person. This did not seem to be a barrier in
any area in the ND, and its possible that a higher price would also not be a barrier to
participation.
Application Process
A standard application was developed and used across the District. Tracy used the 4H
long form application and modified it to request additional information pertinent to the
MFV program. Questions were added to gather information about skills and abilities
related to potential duties of the MFV, foreign languages spoken, and references.
Applicants were also asked to complete a media release form and to indicate how they
would like their official MFV name badge to read.
Each unit individually responded to inquiries, distributed and collected applications,
interviewed applicants, checked references and collected program fees. The journal
transfer process was then used to transfer the fees to one agent who handled all the
purchases.
Job Description
Latoyia developed a standard MFV job description for the ND pilot. Each agent handled
distribution of this differently. Some distributed it with promotional materials, and some
distributed it as part of the application and interview process.
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Participant Manual
The content of the program manual was determined with input from the FCS Master
Volunteer Program Team, using the K-State manual as a foundation. VCE publications
were substituted for K-State publications when available. Printing of manuals was done
through the Extension Distribution Center at Virginia Tech, except the items that needed
to be printed with colored ink.
To save money, numbered tabs were used to divide the content of the Manual.
Participant feedback indicated that subject titles on tabs were preferred to numbered
tabs. A loose leaf notebook was chosen for holding Manual materials so that
participants could insert copies of additional handouts provided by speakers at each
class.
Evaluation
Post program knowledge assessment – Latoyia developed this based on content of the
manual and in the PowerPoint presentations. This assessment was given out the third
week and participants were asked to turn it in at the last class (fourth week).
Scores were generally very good, about 85-95. .
A post program survey was also designed with support from Nancy Franz. This survey
was conducted primarily through Survey Monkey. 27 out of 29 participants completed
the survey on-line and one completed it over the phone. Beverly shared results of this
survey. The same survey will be conducted at 3 and 6 months after program
completion.
Beverly commented that she thinks that they got more comments by doing it through
Survey Monkey rather than handing it out at the last session and asking people to write
down their responses.
Lessons Learned
The ND agents shared a list of lessons learned (see attached document). One major
change that they will be implementing for their next program will be to spread the
program out over five weekly sessions, instead of four. ND agents will also be
considering how they might encourage participants to spend more time reading the
contents of the MFV Participant Manual.
Beverly also noted that the ND agent team conducted weekly debrief sessions where
agents discussed what they thought went well, what didn’t go so well, and noted ideas
for making improvements.
Early success stories
Kim -- made list of volunteer opportunities and sent it out to all volunteers and got great
response. One volunteer has already filled in for Kim on an FNP grocery store
demonstration.
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Tracy – two of her volunteers are nurses. One is going to help with a UVA diabetes
education program. Another volunteer is interested in underserved audiences. Some
are interested in follow-up training on Food Preservation – this is in process of being
scheduled.
Beverly – will engage volunteers in food and nutrition demos for a nutrition awareness
week program in all county schools in spring of 2010. She is also trying to get a
volunteer or two to start a blog and has contacted VT to inquire about software
necessary to make this happen.
2. Discussion/Development of Plans for Dissemination of MFV Training Program
Dissemination of Materials from ND Pilot Program
ND agents agreed to share their program materials for use by agents in other Districts.
FCS Master Volunteer Program Team members agreed that the best way to make
these available would be to post all materials on the VCE Intranet with password
protection.
Follow-up Action: Karen said she would follow-up with Linda Burcham to find
out if password protection on the VCE Intranet is possible. Joan will work with
Beverly to get all program materials posted to a password protected page.
A plan also needs to be developed that would allow groups of agents to order copies of
Participant Manual contents. Beverly suggested that a process be put in place that
would allow District agent teams to order collated and three whole punched sets of the
Manual from the VT Print Center. After receiving these, the District would then just
need to insert any tabs and insert into a notebook for each participant. In order to
facilitate this process, Beverly suggested that all the documents be scanned, and
converted to pdf format. Karen noted that each document may need to be reviewed to
insure that it is up to date in terms of VT/VSU logos, indicia, etc. Judy noted that
perhaps a student could be recruited to help with this process.
Follow-up Action: Joan will work with the VT Print Center to develop a
process for ordering, printing and mailing copies of Participant Manuals to
teams of FCS agents. After receiving all Participant Manual documents from
ND Team, Joan will update as needed with latest logos and also scan and
convert to electronic format. Joan will develop instructions for agents on how
to order copies of the Participant Manual contents and suggestions for
making notebooks.
Program Pricing
There was some discussion about whether a standard price should be established
across the State. Since the VCE Master Gardener program pricing differs from one
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area to another across the State, it would seem reasonable to allow for flexibility on
price within a MFV program as well.
Follow-up Action: The Team may need to discuss this again at the next
meeting, to determine what guidance will be provided to agent teams
interested in conducting a MFV volunteer training program. Joan will put this
on the agenda for the February meeting and possibly ask a subgroup of the
Team to develop a statement to provide guidance to agents on pricing.
Agent Training and Communication
Judy asked the Team to discuss how best to promote the program to groups of FCS
agents in other districts.
Karen indicated that a statewide faculty development conference is likely to be
conducted in April or May and that this would be a potential venue for providing agent
training. Beverly indicated that the ND Team could conduct this training with input from
the state FCS Master Volunteer Team.
Karen also indicated that as a back up plan, she might be able to pay for one or two ND
agents to travel to other Districts to provide this training. She also suggested that ND
agents might act as mentors for other District agent teams interested in implementing a
MFV program.
Judy suggested that the Team should develop a plan for regular communications with
FCS agents about the MFV program.
Follow-up Action: Plan to conduct an agent training at the April or May faculty
meeting. Joan to reserve meeting space at the Albemarle County Office Building on
February 16 from 10AM to 2PM to develop the objectives and the structure for the
agent training. Joan will send confirmation message to Team members once the
meeting space has been reserved. Joan and Beverly will work together to get all
materials posted to the Intranet page before the training session is conducted.
Potential Sources of Funding and Program Support:
Beverly reported that the Egg Board representative involved in the ND pilot is going to
ask the State Egg Board to include funding in its future budget to cover the cost of
replicating the omelet preparation activity in future MFV training programs across the
state.
Follow-up Action: Beverly will let the Team know the decision of the Egg
Board and will work with Joan to develop instructions for District Agent teams
on how to access this resource.
Beverly suggested that we contact CUTCO to explore potential support for the MFV
program. A specific request might be to include asking for knife sets for use in the MFV
training program; at least one set for each District that conducts a program. We could
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possibly allow a CUTCO representative to come to one of the training sessions to
demonstrate knife safety.
Follow-up Action: Beverly has a contact with someone who works for Cutco
and will contact that person to inquire about the possibility of Cutco donating
knife sets, providing knife safety demonstrations and/or other support for MFV
training program.
Members also noted that other kitchen equipment will likely be needed to conduct this
program, but that many agents have previously secured cooking equipment for other
programs (Operation Frontline, Dining with Diabetes) or have access to equipment
through the FNP. Teams of agents interested in conducting a MFV training program
could also apply for Svoboda funding to help cover the costs of any necessary
equipment.
Karen indicated that the Farm Bureau Women have an obesity initiative and that she
has a contact with this group.
Follow-up Action: Karen suggested that a Team member contact this group
and share the results of the ND pilot and possibly explore the potential for
funding support.
Karen noted that it appeared that the Northern District group of MFV trainees bonded
and asked the Team to consider how we might develop the MFV group as advocates for
FCS programs. Beverly suggested that as we grow this new group—we could build this
into the long-term plan. Judy thinks that a blog will help them keep in touch with each
other. Donna suggested that maybe in the future we could offer state level trainings at
Tech or VSU to help build the advocacy role.
Karen also noted that she is looking into the provision of an electronic system for
managing FCS volunteers. Craig Woods has funding approval from Dr. Rudd to
purchase software for this purpose and the plan would be that AHNR-IT will work with
each Extension program area to adapt the system to meet their needs. This is probably
at least a year away from becoming a reality.
Donna shared a document that she has developed that includes a list of Virginia private
foundations along with each foundation’s funding guidelines, The list of foundations
could be used by District agent teams looking to fund an MFV program. Donna noted
that many of the Foundations limit their funding based on geography and that some
require 501c3 status. Karen noted that the newly formed FCS Foundation is a 501c3
and could be used by agents to apply for this type of funding.
Follow-up Action: Joan will post the Foundations list on the Intranet page that
is developed for MFV program.
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Karen noted that she feels that high priority should be given to seeking funding for a
MFV program coordinator, and that she might be able to support an outside
professional grant writer to write a grant for this purpose. She also asked agents on this
Team and the Northern District MFV Team to leverage their contacts with volunteers
and others in an effort to fund a source of funding for a MFV Coordinator position.
3. Impact Statements for 2010
The ND agent team will develop an impact statement to communicate the results of
their MFV pilot program.
The FCS Master Food Volunteer Team will submit their own impact statement to report
their actions related to the development of both an MFV and a Master Health Volunteer
program in 2010.
Follow-up Action: Judy and Joan will work together to draft an impact
statement and will list all FCS Master Volunteer Team members as
collaborators.
4. Team Chairperson
Judy welcomed Joan back to the Team and indicated that Joan would now be leading
the Team as Chair. Judy will continue to serve as a member of the Team.
5. Next Meeting
The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, February 16 from 10AM to 2PM and will be
conducted at the Albemarle County Office Building. Joan will notify members of the
room location as soon as it has been reserved. All members should plan to bring their
lunch.
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