Goals and Objectives

1. Define and measure relevant outcomes of community, local, and regional food systems using economic, environmental, and health perspectives.

• Develop strong evaluation tools to use with common programs or with agreed upon components to common initiatives.
• Systematize tools for data collection and analysis.
• Generate effective ways to measure impacts reliably without adding burden to county staff.
• Identify or create a common repository for gathering regional data on local foods work.
• Conduct relevant research to challenge assumptions related to local foods.
• Gather defensible data to show Extension’s impact and justify our existence.
• Strengthen the regional infrastructure for capturing impacts.
• Convene representatives from all Southern states to participate fully as a regional initiative.

2. Serve as a resource for supporting and promoting local foods programs that can lead to desired outcomes.

• Accurately capture inputs across Extension’s program areas related to local foods.
• Identify program gaps.
• Identify best practices.
• Convene representatives from all Southern states to participate fully as a regional initiative.

3. Communicate the value and impact of Extension’s local foods programming.

• Develop data-driven public value statements communicating the impact of Extension work.
• Strengthen regional infrastructure for communicating successes.
• Capture qualitative success stories, photographs, etc., to add the human touch to the data.
• Report defensible data to prove Extension’s impact and justify our existence.
• Convene representatives from all Southern states to participate fully as a regional initiative.

4. Foster greater cross-programmatic connections among those working in food systems through Extension and Research.

• Expand existing programs to include local food initiatives.
• Strengthen regional infrastructure for capturing impacts and communicating successes.
• Accurately capture inputs from Extension across program areas into the foods work.
• Convene representatives from all Southern states to participate fully as a regional initiative.

September 17, 2014

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