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BUILDING A FOOD SAFETY TRAINING PROGRAM TO EMPOWER DISADVANTAGED PRODUCERS IN ALABAMA

Objective

The goal of this projectis to reach socially disadvantaged farmers by developinga food safety training program that willempower farmers in the Black Belt region of Alabama. The Alabama Extension, Tuskegee University, and Communities Improvement Association's overall approach are to provide training tosocially disadvantaged farmersas well asdevelop supplemental training materials that will accommodate the needs of low literacy, low vision, and hard-of-hearing audiences. Since the current food safety training and educational materials are not designed to assist these individuals, the developed materials will be used to conduct training in Preventative Controls, Good Agriculture Practices, Produce Safety, Enhancing the Safety of Locally Grown Produce, Cottage Food Law, ServSafe, and Farm Innovation. An advisory board, consisting of the Project team and farmers, will be formed to help guide the process and success of the efforts. The evaluation goals and outcomes will be performed using a mixed approach, to estimate program efficacy, effectiveness, and impact. At the end of the project year, a Farm Resource Day will be conducted to allow growers and processors the opportunity to educate consumers on what they have learned. They will also be able to sell products they have grown.Objective 1. To Modify and adapt food safety training for socially disadvantaged farmers by altering existing curricula and developing supplemental training tools for low-literacy, low-vision, low-hearing beginning farmers.Objective 2. Train socially disadvantaged farmers in 12 counties in the Black Belt region of Alabama.Objective 3. Evaluate the project using a mixed-method approach that assesses socially disadvantaged farmer's knowledge and impact throughout the program.

Investigators
Hall, J.
Institution
Auburn University
Start date
2021
End date
2023
Project number
ALAN2021-05761
Accession number
1027193