Engaged Scholarship with the Colorado Local Food Purchase Assistance Program: Evaluating Program Impact and Grounding Future Producer Technical Assistance Support Through Research
Primary Topic:
Food Systems
Other Topics:
Community & Economic Development, FCS, Nutrition, & Food Safety, Health & Wellbeing
Lead Mentor:
Libby Christensen
Statewide Food and Agriculture Specialist
Internship Overview:
The Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program is a program to maintain and improve food and agricultural supply chain resiliency. The agreement allows states to procure and distribute local and regional foods and beverages that are healthy, nutritious, unique to their geographic areas and that meet the needs of the population. LFPA works to address hunger and food insecurity by supporting family farms and investing in local and regional food systems. Through LFPA, food procured from local farms is distributed through food assistance programs including food banks, schools, faith-based organizations and nonprofits that reach underserved communities, and the program places special emphasis on sourcing from socially disadvantaged producers.
In April of 2022, Colorado was the first in the nation to be awarded their cooperative agreement to establish the program. The program is a partnership between the Colorado Department of Human Services, the Colorado Department of Agriculture, and the United States Department of Agriculture. The program began in the fall of 2022 and will conclude in the spring of 2025. This internship is a unique opportunity to work closely with the Colorado Department of Human Services to support the analysis of the first two years of quantitative and qualitative data. Findings from the data analysis will be used to inform focus groups with producers who participated in the program. These focus groups can help ground efforts by Extension to support farmers and ranchers as they seek to sell their products to wholesale and institutional markets.
The program is also a success story of state agency collaboration. The impact of the project will be shared with the Colorado Food System Advisory Council and its stakeholders as an example of what can be accomplished through cross agency collaboration.
In April of 2022, Colorado was the first in the nation to be awarded their cooperative agreement to establish the program. The program is a partnership between the Colorado Department of Human Services, the Colorado Department of Agriculture, and the United States Department of Agriculture. The program began in the fall of 2022 and will conclude in the spring of 2025. This internship is a unique opportunity to work closely with the Colorado Department of Human Services to support the analysis of the first two years of quantitative and qualitative data. Findings from the data analysis will be used to inform focus groups with producers who participated in the program. These focus groups can help ground efforts by Extension to support farmers and ranchers as they seek to sell their products to wholesale and institutional markets.
The program is also a success story of state agency collaboration. The impact of the project will be shared with the Colorado Food System Advisory Council and its stakeholders as an example of what can be accomplished through cross agency collaboration.
Goals, Scope and Objectives:
The scope of the project is the statewide Local Food Purchase Assistance Program. It has involved local farms and food assistance programs including food banks, schools, faith-based organizations and nonprofits. The goals and objectives of the project are fourfold – 1) Conduct a comprehensive analysis of quantitative and qualitative data collected over the first two years of the program; 2) Use the findings from data analysis to inform and guide focus groups with producers who participated in the program; 3) Develop recommendations as to how the research could inform efforts to develop and implement programming for Colorado farmers and ranchers looking to sell more of their product to wholesale and institutional markets; 4) Create communication tools to share the impact of the project in the context of federal policy goals, changes and refinements as states share their experiences in operationalizing the program. The intern will be responsible for working with mentors to develop a final report summarizing findings from data analysis and focus groups.
With which stakeholder group(s) will the intern work?
Colorado Department of Education, Agriculture, and Human Service Staff, the Colorado Food System Advisory Council, recipients of the LFPA funding including producers, County-based Extension professionals.
What student learning outcomes do you anticipate and what are the opportunities for professional development?
Learning Objectives: Experience working with and cleaning a large dataset; analyzing quantitative and qualitative data; collaboratively identifying research questions with academic and engaged partners; organizing and supporting focus groups; communicating findings to diverse audiences; developing research-based resources to share with local communities.
Professional Development Opportunities: Opportunity to meet and work with staff at state agencies (Colorado Department of Agriculture, Education, and Human Services); Opportunity to develop and deliver presentation materials to the Colorado Food System Advisory Council; Opportunity for project to be a case study of a national assessment conducted by Michigan State University in partnership with the USDA of the implementation of the LFPA program.
Professional Development Opportunities: Opportunity to meet and work with staff at state agencies (Colorado Department of Agriculture, Education, and Human Services); Opportunity to develop and deliver presentation materials to the Colorado Food System Advisory Council; Opportunity for project to be a case study of a national assessment conducted by Michigan State University in partnership with the USDA of the implementation of the LFPA program.
