The Community Food Project Evaluation Toolkit (Toolkit) is a hands-on workbook designed to help community food project (CFP) staff conduct evaluations of their programs to develop the kind of information that will be compelling not only to fellow staff but to funders, participants and community residents. Packed with user-friendly tools as well as guidance for planning and administration, the Toolkit offers a concentrated blend of general, project-level and system-level instruments to address the diversity of community food project outputs and outcomes. The Toolkit is divided into three parts (general evaluation tools, project-level evaluation tools and system-level evaluation tools) and includes eight distinct chapters. The Table of Contents outlines in detail the various parts and chapters of the Toolkit and can help the reader find a specific topic or tool of interest

The USDA-funded National Institute of Agriculture (NIFA) Community Food Projects (CFP) Competitive Grants Program (CFPCGP) was designed to meet the food needs of low-income people; to increase the self-reliance of communities in meeting their own food needs; and to promote comprehensive responses to local food, farm and nutrition issues. Since its inception in 1996, around 400 grants programs have been awarded in 48 states through CFPCGP. (CFPCGP was formerly administered through CSREES). To assess the collective impacts of this program, the web-based Community Food Projects Indicators of Success (IOS) was developed to track and monitor the important and common outputs and outcomes across the diverse and dynamic CFPs. (The CFP IOS was based on the Common Output Tracking Form (COTF) originally developed in 2005.) The CFP IOS reflects a focus on outcomes (e.g., economic and social equity, healthy food access) of CFP grantees and includes a participant survey component, or the Participant Impact Survey (PS), which measures the self-reported knowledge, attitude and behavior changes of project participants.

This document was written by the Community Food Security Coalition.

The Community Food Projects Indicators of Success FY 2018 report illustrates the collective impact of Community Food Project grantees based on the metrics from Whole Measures for Community Food Systems. It includes metrics from the 6 areas of impact from Whole Measures: Healthy People, Strong Communities, Thriving Local Economies, Sustainable Ecosystems, Vibrant Farms and Gardens and Fairness and Justice. 

A compilation of stories from Community Food Projects across the country - told visually and hosted on the WhyHunger website.

Learn the benefits of conducting a competitive analysis for your farming business. 

This is episode 2 of Composting with Annie Hauck-Lawson. She takes you to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens with Jenny Blackwell, manager of the NYC Compost Project in Brooklyn, where we continue with the different types of bins available, homemade and commercial ready-made bins. This video was produced, directed and editied by Jeff Samaha Video Productions.

This is episode three of Composting with Annie Hauck-Lawson, associate professor at Brooklyn College. Here she describes bin maintenance which will take kitchen scraps and turn them into “black gold” or humus. This video was directed and edited by Jeff Samaha Video Productions.
www.jeffsamaha.com

Annie Hauck-Lawson shows us how to build a straw fort which contains a compost wire bin and a cold frame to grow vegetables in the cold of winter. This is part 1. The video was produced, directed and edited by Jeff Samaha Video Productions

Annie Hauck-Lawson shows us how to build a straw fort which contains a compost wire bin and a cold frame to grow vegetables in the cold of winter. This is part 2. The video was produced, directed and edited by Jeff Samaha Video Productions