EVALUATING A FOOD SAFETY EDUCATION PROGRAM

The NC Cooperative Extension currently has five Plan of Work (POW) areas. These are:

1: Enhancing Agriculture, Forest, and Food Systems
2: Developing Responsible Youth
3: Strengthening and Sustaining Families
4: Conserving and Improving Environmental and Natural Resources
5: Building Quality Communities

Evaluation data collected in conjunction with a specific food safety program are reported under 3: Strengthening and Sustaining Families. In this POW area there are five objectives:

F-1: Building Healthy Families. North Carolinians, including limited resource individuals/families will improve the quality of their lives through eating healthy, being active, handling food safely, managing resources for food security, and practicing health-promoting behaviors.
F-2: Building Strong Families. Families, including those with limited resources, and those who work with families will gain knowledge and practice skills in understanding lifespan development, positive interpersonal relationships, and improving quality of life.
F-3: Fostering Resiliency for Families in Transition. North Carolinians, including those with limited resources, will develop skills and strategies to manage effectively their personal finances through expected and unexpected economic change and life events.
F-4: Developing Leadership and Community Capacity. Individuals and groups will develop leadership skills and take action to maximize development and use of community resources leading to improved quality of life for all families.
F-5: Promoting Safe and Healthy Environments. North Carolinians, including those with limited resources, will improve the safety and health of their working and living environments.

The Electronic Reporting System

The Electronic Reporting System (ERS) is where NC Extension Agents enter data about their education efforts. The ERS is at: http://intra.ces.ncsu.edu. Select "Applications" and then "Data Entry." NOTE: The NC Cooperative Extension is revising its methods for evaluating programs and so this information might change in the future.

Data collected to provide evidence about food safety programs lead by Extension Agents, Family and Consumer Sciences, are reported under either F-1: Building Health Families or F-5: Promoting Safe and Health Environments. Data supporting food safety programs that target consumers are reported under F-1; data for food safety programs targeting foodservice workers are reported under F-5.

There are nine sections where data is entered. Sections A, B, and C are the only sections that will be described in this module.

Section A --Contact Information. Enter information about the demographic characteristics of the audience.
Section B-- Accomplishment Reports. Enter data about specific measures of progress and impact indicators. Use the data collection methods and evaluation instruments that have been prepared for food safety training programs.
Section C-- Success Stories. Enter a narrative description of the program. More than one success story can be entered.

Section A -- Contact Information

It is important to be able to describe who is attending your food safety trainings. More information is available at Demographic Surveys.

Section B -- Accomplishment Reports

There are two key components to this section:

Measures of progress. These are assessments of the number of participants and knowledge gained. These are lower level measures of program value. However, sometimes this is the only measure that is available.
Impact indicators. These focus on behavior change. Not all programs have valid and reliable tools to measure impact.

More information about how to collect data for this section is available at Evaluation Tools for the Electronic Reporting System.

Section C -- Success Stories

Section C is where one enters their Success Stories. A success story for a POW (not to exceed 150 words). Success stories might be entered at any time, but should be entered at least semi-annually. Here are the basic elements of a good success story.

Problem Addressed -- Describe the problem that is being addressed in one sentence.
Partners -- Describe with whom you delivered your program – internal and external partners should be listed.
Educational Program or Initiative -- Describe the program, it might be a packaged program or it might be a task force on which you worked.
People -- Describe who attended and, if appropriate, what percentage of the local population do they represent. This information can be gathered from your Data, Data Everywhere Worksheet.
Short-term Outcome -- Report against the data that you collected to input to the ERS Measures of Progress and Impact Indicators outlined. Standardized, valid evaluation tools must be used to gather this information.
Health and/or Economic Impact -- Often this cannot be measured so we need to make projections based on credible assumptions – the specialists should provide this information.
Participant Comment -- Adding a statement made by an participant will add soul or life to your success story.

More information about writing a success story for a food safety education program is available at Success Story Templates.

Collecting Data

Evaluation tools have been developed for most of the food safety training programs that are part of the NC Food Safety Program. These are available in Evaluation Tools for the Electronic Reporting System. After printing the correct evaluation tool, collect data as follows:

Estimate how many people will be attending your training.
Make enough copies of the correct evaluation instruments for each training participant. For ease of handling, use white paper for the pretest and a different colored paper for the delayed posttest. Label the instruments (A) for pretest and (B) for delayed posttest. Remember the pretest and the posttest are the same instruments, they are just administered at different times.
Put the delayed posttest, (labeled B) into a stamped (39 cents) envelope addressed to you at the County Extension Center. Do not seal this envelope. The respondent will use this envelope to return the delayed posttest to you.
Put the unsealed envelope into a 9½ by 6½ manila stamped envelope and seal.
Pretest all participants immediately before you begin the program.
Conduct the program.
At the end of the program, give each participant a stamped sealed envelope containing the delayed posttest (B). Have participants write their name and address on the envelope. Collect these envelopes.
Three months after the end of the program, mail the self-addressed envelopes to the participants.
Summarize your data and analyze it.
Prepare a success story by going to Success Stories.
Enter your results into the ERS system.

Calculating the Value of Your Program

Determining the economic value of education programs is becoming more and more important. More information about how to calculate the economic value of your food safety education program is available at Calculating Economic Value.

Test Your Knowledge

1. Under which Plan of Work (POW) area should food safety programs that are delivered through the Family and Consumer Sciences Program be delivered?

2. If you have 20 people attend a ServSafe training and they represent four restaurants, what is the economic value of the training?

3. What are the key components of a success story?

4. What is the difference between a pretest and a posttest?

5. Is a food safety program for the foodservice industry reported under F1: Building Health Family or F5: Promoting Safe and Healthy Environments?

ANSWER KEY