While changing food habits isn’t easy, learning how to cook healthy food using farm fresh ingredients may help people improve their diets. An innovative program that Penn State Extension educators launched in spring 2023 is lowering barriers to healthy eating by introducing people to fresh produce and other local foods. This publication describes how the program works and how the team collaborates in the community, specifically with farmer’s markets, to accomplish its goals. The publication is excerpted from the New Technologies for Ag Extension 2022-2023 Yearbook, which documents dozens of projects funded through the New Technologies for Ag Extension (NTAE) program. NTAE is a cooperative agreement between USDA NIFA, Oklahoma State University, and the Extension Foundation. The goal of the New Technologies for Ag Extension (NTAE) grant is to incubate, accelerate, and expand promising work that will increase the impact of the Cooperative Extension System (CES) in the communities it serves, and provide models that can be adopted or adapted by Extension teams across the nation. This work is supported by New Technologies for Agriculture Extension grant no. 2020-41595-30123 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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Welcome. “Buy, Cook, Eat Local” is a publication of the New Technologies for Ag Extension (NTAE) program. This publication celebrates the accomplishments of a team at Penn State University Extension, which received funding for this project in 2022-2023. NTAE is a grant program generously supported by the USDA-National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and administered through a partnership between Oklahoma State University and the Extension Foundation (EXF). The primary objective of NTAE is to provide financial assistance to competitively selected Extension programs that align with the strategic goal and priority program areas of the USDA and the Extension Com- mittee on Organization and Policy (ECOP). Through this support, NTAE helps teams catalyze, accelerate, and expand their work in their respective fields. Since its inception in 2019, the NTAE program has successfully funded and supported a total of 72 projects and leaders. This includes collaborations with all Regional Rural Development Centers (RRDCs) and ECOP Program Action Teams (PATs). Selected programs receive support for a period of one year. The project leader and their team are provided with invaluable mentoring from a team of catalysts, key infor- mants, and coaches from the EXF. This customized and innovative support model assists teams in exploring new possibilities, enhancing the intended impact of their projects, and sharing their work with a national audience. Additionally, each team receives additional resources and support to create materials and experiences that speed the development of their projects and bring about desired changes. The project showcased in this publication reflects the diversity and breadth of Extension disciplinary work and programming. In this publication, you will gain deeper insights into this exciting project, including the lessons learned, the project’s significance for Extension in a broader context, and what lies ahead for the team.
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Editorial Staff Julie Halverson Dr. Rose Hayden-Smith Heather Martin Design & Production Dr. Rose Hayden-Smith Ellen P. Krugel Heather Martin
PROJECT TEAM
1. BE INSPIRED . Use our model to create a community-based demonstration in your state or region.
Amber Denmon MS, RDN, LDN, Penn State Extension Olivia Lawler MS, Penn State Extension Mary Alice Gettings MS, RDN, LDN, CDCES, Penn State Extension Sam Zlotorzynski MA, RDN, Penn State Extension Lena Aiken MS, RD, LDN, Penn State Extension
© Extension Foundation Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommer- cial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Published by Extension Foundation. Citations for this publication may be made using the following: Kansas City: Extension Foundation (2022). Buy, Cook, Eat Local (1st ed). ISBN: 978-1-955687-29-4. This work, ISBN 978-1-955687-29-4, is supported by New Technologies for Agriculture Extension grant no. 2020- 41595-30123 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this pub- lication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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Extension Director and talk about how to use it to enhance your institution’s public outreach. 3. SHARE. Share this publication with potential community partners who could help you scale your program. 4. GIVE FEEDBACK. Did this publication inform your Extension work? Share what you’ve
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BUY, COOK, EAT LOCAL Cooking demonstration project promotes healthy eating, farmer’s markets, and Extension services.
HEALTHY DIETS SAVE MONEY. A 2019 study in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics reported that eating well could lower the nation’s medical expenses by as much as $31.5 billion each year. While changing food habits isn’t easy, learning how to cook healthy food using farm fresh ingredients may help people improve their diets. An innovative program launched in spring 2023, “Market Fresh with Extension,” is lowering barriers to healthy eating by introducing people to fresh produce and other local foods. The program targets customers at farmer’s markets, providing practical and appealing suggestions for how to incorporate healthy fruits and vegetables into meals and snacks. The initiative not only promotes the benefits of eat- ing nutritious produce—which can help address the state’s growing obesity rates—it also encourages people to sup- port local producers, which strengthens local economies. Developed by a team at Pennsylvania State University Extension, in partnership with the university’s Department of Nutritional Science, “Market Fresh with Extension” com- bines in-person cooking demonstrations at farmer’s markets with a virtual component that teaches people how to use herbs and spices to flavor their food—instead of added sugars, saturated fat, and sodium. In addition to its health improvement and buy-local goals, “Market Fresh with Extension” also provides the Penn State team with a valuable opportunity to share its extensive resources and programs with new and existing audiences.
This Penn State team was one of five teams that received funding for work on nutrition and food safety through the 2023 New Technologies for Ag Extension (NTAE) pro- gram. During the project year, the team worked closely with Extension Foundation Catalysts and Key Informants to enhance their work. In this Q&A, we spoke with team members to learn more about their project and their NTAE experience.
Why did you apply for an NTAE grant?
Prior to NTAE, Penn State Extension partnered with the Uni- versity’s Department of Nutritional Sciences and McCor- mick Science Institute on education and research programs to promote spice and herb consumption. As part of that work, our team translated the 2020-2025 dietary guide- lines recommendations for herbs and spices to encourage more people to incorporate them in their cooking. Aaron Weibe, a communications and marketing Key Infor- mant for the foundation, told us about the grant opportunity after our team did a short webinar for Extension Foundation in April 2021. We realized that this might help us take this program to the next level. Another important goal for us is increasing awareness about Extension: who we are and what we do. By partner- ing with and attending local farmer’s markets to offer food demonstrations, we can expand our audience reach and promote our programs in more communities. Attendees leave the demo with a recipe and a postcard with a QR code that will take them to a resource page, which provides additional information. What have you learned as you’ve developed your program this year that has surprised you? Partnerships within our own institution are important. For example, we partnered with Brian Moyer, an Extension educator with our Business and Community Vitality Unit. Brian works very closely with farmer’s markets, and writes a monthly newsletter that he sends to market managers. Brian included information about “Market Fresh with Extension” ➤
“This team exemplifies the Cooperative Extension goal of making research-based information more accessible to the public. They are very resourceful and quick to use the Extension Services to introduce their clientele to all that Penn State University has to offer.” —Dr. Dyremple Marsh, NTAE Catalyst
paper. This method was easy to explain and distribute to educators across the state, as 2023 was the first year we did this project. However, during the development of “Market Fresh” we came across something called the “Dot Meth- od,” which is a quick and effective way to col- lect data from large groups of people. Although it requires a bit more set up than a Qualtrics survey, we think it may be easier for market go- ers to respond t o. As this project progresses we plan to learn more about the “Dot Method’ and figure out an efficient way to incorporate it into “Market Fresh.”
in a newsletter. From that first communication, eight managers reached out to us to set up a date for a food demonstration. On top of that we were able to connect with over 12 Extension educators across the state to make this project come to life! Working with this many individuals is rewarding, but it reinforc- es the need for a program model to keep organized and on the same page. With this in mind, we’ve begun to develop some mate- rials that we think will do just that. As part of our partnerships with these markets, our internal marketing team made the digital and print marketing materials we provided to the managers for promotion. That made it easy for them to promote Extension. Is your program a model that Extension teams at other LGUs could adopt/adapt? Yes! One of the resources that our team put many hours into is the “Educator Tool Kit,” which is designed to help guide our edu- cators set up a food demonstration at their local farmer’s market. The tool kit provides information about our team and this project, via the case statement we developed earlier this year for NTAE. Having the case statement on hand makes it easy for educators to tell market managers about who we are and how we plan to collaborate. The tool kit also contains a supplies and materials list to en- sure that all our team members are prepared and ready for the demonstration. The tool kit is really a wonderful resource for our team, but any Extension team would be able to use it to help guide them through setting up local food demonstrations. The tool kit also has a section dedicated to the evaluation of the food demonstrations. For this project we use a short Qualtrics survey that could be filled out via a QR code or on
What lessons can you share with other Extension teams interested in implementing a similar program? Food demonstrations are complex, governed by regulations and the need to follow food safety protocols. We learned that different counties have different food safety regulations. The market managers connected us with local health inspectors, who answered our questions. Food safety considerations included having a handwashing station, coolers with food thermometers to keep food at safe temperatures, and preparing the food in a licensed kitchen. A crucial lesson we learned is that having adequate staffing is critical. Our team was small and we were unable to meet the demand. We had to pivot.
Can you tell us about that pivot?
We wanted to assure that the entire state was represented when we chose locations for food demonstrations. The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture covers the state by having staff cover certain regions, so we thought it would be reflective of the whole state to make sure that each region had a scheduled food demonstration. We received a lot of requests from one region. At first we were so excited and said “yes” to all of these markets. We soon realized that our small team couldn’t spend the travel time to all sites in the same area. We also realized that would take away from our goal of representing the whole state. So we went back to the drawing board. We reviewed our educator coverage maps, the local food safe- ty restrictions, and made a decision about whether to cancel or move forward with a demonstration event. The large number of requests from the one region did confirm the real need for an Extension educator in this area. ■
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