Wisconsin Farm to School: One Year Evaluation Report

The primary aim of the Farm to School (F2S) program is to improve student health and eating behaviors. Its strategy is to encourage schools to buy directly from local growers and incorporate locally grown foods into school meal and snack programs. There is also hope that the program may have additional benefits that can impact schools, local producers, and communities.

This first-year report evaluates the program’s impact on the participating students’ attitude towards fruits and vegetables (FV) and reception of new FV. The report also evaluates the local economic impact of F2S programs along with a qualitative assessment of the barriers and opportunities for F2S implementation.

Study Goals:

This study explored nine schools participating in the state-wide Wisconsin AmeriCorps F2S program. The aims of this report were to describe:

• Baseline weight and the rate of obesity
• Changes in students’ knowledge and attitudes pertaining to food, nutrition, agriculture, and FV consumption
• FV availability at schools and students’ consumption during school lunch meals

Research Questions:

During the evaluation, the participating students were surveyed on their knowledge and attitude towards FV. Results from the Knowledge and Attitude (KA) survey were separated into six constructs:

• Knowledge – These questions focused on materials given to students cover in the AmeriCorps F2S program.
• Attitudes – These questions focused on whether the students like previously eaten and new FV.
• Perception/ Self-efficacy – These questions focused on whether the students’ perception of their own diets (whether the foods they eat are healthy).
• Exposure – These questions focused on whether the students have previously eaten presented FV.
• Liking – These questions focused on if the students liked the presented FV.
• Willingness – These questions focused on if the students would try an unfamiliar FV.

Findings:

The evaluation report found the following:

• Food and agriculture knowledge at baseline was relatively high, but students’ scores did improve during the 2010-2011 F2S program. The most significant changes were seen among students in schools in their second year of F2S programming.
• Attitudes for liking and tasting FV as well as trying introduced FV increased, especially amongst students in schools that participated in years prior.

For more information, download the full report.