Winter/Spring 1998
KEYSTONE 21 is a partnership among Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences & former Commonwealth Educational System, and Rodale Institute Experiemental Farm. KEYSTONE 21 is funded in part by the W.K. Kellogg Foudation FSPE Iniative.
The Food Systems Professions Education Initiative offers land-grant universities, in cooperation with other institutions, the opportunity to design and implement educational programs that will prepare food systems professionals for the 21st century. Our food system is a complex web of intertwined environmental, social, political, economic, and scientific dimensions. Maintaining the balance necessary for the system to function effectively is becoming increasingly difficult in this era of rapid change and instability.
Many factors, including droughts, deforestation, population shifts, unsustainable farming practices, and global trade policies threaten the viability of local, national, and international food systems. Food systems professionals will need new skills and new opportunities for life-long learning if they are to function effectively in such a dynamic environment.
KEYSTONE 21 will prepare food systems professionals for the challenges of the 21st century through new formal and non-formal educational programs and new forms of outreach that strengthen local food systems. This is a long-term process, and it requires fresh approaches to problem-solving and innovative collaborations among educational insititutions, communities, voluntary organizations, government, and industry.
KEYSTONE 21 is scheduled to last through the year 2000. During this time, our partnership will be working with other insitutions and groups to begin making the changes necessary to ensure that future generations inherit an environmentally sustainable and economically sound food system.
This inaugural issue of our newsletter highlights our major accomplishments of the past year. These included a Youth Summer Program which introduced disadvantaged urban youth to careers in the food system and several grants we have awarded to partnerships that are developing innovative educational programs and outreach efforts. Future issues will focus on the lessons we have learned from project activities, the changing role and structure of the land grant universities, and new directions in outreach and service.
The five-week long residential program involved 24 students, and was designed to provide an overview of the food system and an introduction to food system careers. Classroom and experiental learning activities took place at Penn State Berks Campus, the Rodale Institute Experimental Farm, and Cheyney University.
Specific topics that were addressed included agriculture and farming, processing, distribution, marketing, nutrition, and hotel, restaurant and institutional management. Students spent the first week of the program at Berks Campus. Activities included lectures and demonstrations about horticulture, plant identification, plant maintenance, international horticulture, planting techniques, and plant propagation. Faculty also provided students with information about career opportunities in horticulture and plant science.
During the second week of the program, the students participated in a week-long workshop at the Rodale Institute Experimental Farm. The workshop series was designed to expose the young people to an array of issues and projects related to Regenerative Organic Food Systems Around the World. In addition to the lectures and demonstrations conducted at the Rodale Institute, the students took field trips to an organic dairy production facility and a community supported agriculture operation. The aim of this component of the summer project was to demonstrate the connections between agricultural practices and health and provide students with practical knowledge that would help students to make better decisions about their career choices.
For the third week of the program, the students returned to Berks Campus where they learned about food science and technology. The program included lectures and laboratory demonstrations on the following subjects: the processing of such foods as dairy and confectionery products, food microbiology, food safety, and fermentation.
Students also took field trips to a dairy farm, the Penn State Agricultural Center at Berks Campus, the M&M Mars processing plant, and a pretzel processing facility. Finally, students learned how to use the internet and create web pages.
The final two weeks of the summer program were spent at Cheyney University. This portion of the program focused on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management. An overview of food preparation, delivery, and related entrepreneurial opportunities were presented.
The curriculum consisted of (1) kitchen health and safety rules, (2) marketing, (3) client relations, (4) meal and budget planning, (5) event planning, (6) room preparation, (7) staffing, (8) how to design and layout a buffet, (9) finance, and (10) how to select a bank, an accountant, and an attorney. Other activities included participation in a professionally catered event, field trips to the Restaurant Depot, the Food Distribution Center, and the Women¼s Club of Bala. The students were also given the opportunity to practice their new computer skills.
The students applied their new knowledge as they planned, prepared, and served a closing dinner for the Keystone 21 partners, their parents, and community representatives. The dinner also provided an opportunity for the students to provide feedback to the partnership and reflect on their experience. It was clear from their comments that they had discovered new abilities over the course of the Summer Program and that they now envisioned a wider array of educational and career possibilities.
We have also created a Staff Specialist group consisting of representatives from each partner institution. This group works closely with the G4 Committee Members and meets monthly to handle the development and implimentation of the KEYSTONE 21 activities selected by the G4. The Staff Specialist also act as the primary contact for faculty at each partner institution.
In addition, a full-time project coordinator was hired to monitor all of the activities and communications of the KEYSTONE 21 project.
The lessons were rich with interactive techniques and visual learning opportunities. As part of the dairy lesson, students worked in pairs to make butter from cream, using small dixie cups as butter churns. During the beekeeping industry lessons each student made a beeswax candle to take home. In addition to the hands-on activities videos, models, samples and posters all helped students retain important concepts.
Before delivering lessons to students, the 4-H teen presenters discussed classroom management, program delivery, lesson plans and professionalism during the workshop sessions and practiced teaching lessons among their peers. Teens completed a life skill record which helped 4-H members improve skills in communication, planning/organizing, cooperation, wise use of resources, decision making and self worth.
Classroom teachers evaluated teen presentations on quality, preparedness, confidence, educational value and appropriateness on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being excellent. Teachers rated 69% of the presentations as excellent. Teachers expressed the value of these lessons to their curriculum by commenting that few children have first hand knowledge of food production and this program helped children understand the importance of these industries to their way of life, their health and the local economy. The children left the lesson with not only some knowledge of specific commodities, but also a greater understanding and sensitivity to the challanges and complexities of our food production system.
Other collaborators in this project were: all public schools in Mifflin, Juniata and Perry Counties, the Perry County Farm Bureau, the Perry County Dairy Promotion committee, the Perry County Home Schoolers Association, and three private schools - Heritage Christian School, Scared Heart, and Mifflin County Christian Academy.
Funded proposals and collaborating organizations include:
Puerto Rican Food Systems and Society, a project to develop an
undergraduate course on Puerto Rican food systems, as well as related
outreach initiatives aimed at the Berks County Puerto Rican community.
Collaborators: Penn State Berks-Lehigh Valley College, Penn State
Cooperative Extension in Berks County, Hispanic Center of Reading and
Berks
County.
The Integration of Food Systems Education into Elementary Science Units. As part of this project, an agriscience resource specialist will seek ways to integrate food and agriculture concepts into the teaching of existing science units. Collaborators: Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences and the State College Area School District.
CONVERSION 2000: A Waste Management, Education, and Research Project, which aims to reduce the waste stream and educate students and others by setting up a composting program for food and lawn waste at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania. Collaborators: Cheyney University and the Rodale Institute.
Preserving Crop Biodiversity and Seed Saving: Linking Our Food System Past with the Future. This grant will provide support for a conference and related education and outreach materials. Collaborators: Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences, Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, Landis Valley Heirloom Seed Project, Fox Hollow Seed Company.
Learn Today...Lead Tomorrow: A Double-Barreled Approach to Leadership Education. Funding will assist in the development of a training workshop for student leaders as part of a new College of Agricultural Sciences leadership course. Collaborators: Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, Pennsylvania Department of Education, Pioneer International.
Developing a Distance Education Program for Adult Learners Through Collaboration with Feed Industry. Participants will develop a multimedia workshop on dairy calf nutrition and feeding management for dairy producers. Collaborators: Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences, Agway Agricultural Products.
Mifflin County Youth Gardening Project: Working Together to Provide for the Community, a program that will enable youth probation and parole participants to satisfy community service requirements through 4-H gardening and plant science activities. Collaborators: Penn State Cooperative Extension in Mifflin County, Mifflin County Probation and Parole, Juniata-Mifflin Vocational Technical School.
A Mid-Atlantic, New England and Keystone 21 Joint Initiative, which is aimed at fostering regional communication and collaboration among land grant universities in the Northeast to enhance food systems education. Collaborators: Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences, Cornell University.
BREAD: A Universitywide Freshman Seminar Relating to the Food System. Funding will be used to plan and develop an undergraduate course on the topic of bread in society, which would help satisfy Penn State¼s general education requirements. Collaborators: Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State Science, Technology and Society program, Penn State Schreyer Institute for Innovation in Learning, Gaffron¼s Sunrise Bakery, Penn State Vice Provost¼s office.
Food Systems Educational Experiences for Elementary-aged Children, a project that will utilize 4-H teen volunteers to provide dairy and bee-related educational information to second- and third-graders. Collaborators: Penn State Cooperative Extension in Perry, Juniata and Mifflin counties; Greenwood, Indian Valley, Juniata, Lewistown, Newport, Susquenita and West Perry School Districts; Perry and Mifflin County Farm Bureaus; Perry County Dairy Promotion Program; Fisher Bee Products.
Expanding the Dialogue About the Food System: Using a Media Forum to Enhance Communications Among Food System Stakeholders, a collaboration between Penn State¼s College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State¼s College of Health and Human Development, and Cheyney University of Pennsylvania.
As part of this project, a media forum will be held in Philadelphia in the fall of 1998, bringing together newspaper reporters and editors, radio and television news staff, food industry professionals, agricultural producers, consumers and others. Perceptions and issues related to the food system, food safety, diet and nutrition, and media coverage of these topics will be discussed.
The forum will serve as a model for similar events planned for several other regions of Pennsylvania. Supporting video and printed educational materials will be produced as a guide to forum organizers.
Spin-offs of the forum could include the creation of continuing and professional education and outreach programs for dietitians, journalists, radio and television producers, K-12 teachers, cooperative extension agents, scientists, farm organizations and others; college credit courses in agricultural journalism; an annual „Foods and the Media¾ conference; creation of a rapid-response team of scientists able to speak accurately and articulately to the media about complex food system issues; and other initiatives.
The Allentown Food Enterprise and Education Project, a collaboration between the Community Action Development Corporation of the Lehigh Valley and the Rodale Institute. Focusing on economically disadvantaged neighborhoods in downtown Allentown, organizers will work with regional food producers, processors and vendors to produce and sell fresh and nutritious foods to area residents. Food-related enterprises will be encouraged as a vehicle for urban community development and consumer education.
The educational component of the project includes the development of community-based learning programs to promote the growing and eating of healthy fresh food as a key element to better living. Local producers will receive technical assistance in growing and marketing fresh and organic food, and food merchants will receive guidance in establishing educational programs ã aimed especially at women and children ã showing the link between proper nutrition and health.
Organizers expect to obtain support and participation from a cross-section of the community, including food shop retailers, restaurateurs, the Allentown Economic Development Corporation, neighborhood residents and the general business community.
KEYSTONE 21 is awarding Mini-grants and Keystone Grants to proposals that have innovatively address one or more of the following focus areas:
Improve Interdisciplinary Learning & Information Sharing. KEYSTONE 21 is seeking proposals to develop interdisciplinary educational programs that will provide students with an understanding of the linkages among the scientific, social, economic, and political dimensions of the food system. The project also seeks proposals to create new mechanisms for improving the flow of information between academic disciplines and between higher education and other segments of society.
Establish Collaborative Partnerships. KEYSTONE 21 seeks proposals to form new partnerships in the development and implementation of formal and non-formal food system education programs. We seek partnerships at all levels of the educational system, and between the educational system and the private, public, and non-profit sectors.
Create Regenerative Community/Agriculture Programs. KEYSTONE 21 seeks proposals to develop educational programs that prepare students, community leaders, and the public to develop environmentally sensitive communities with strong agricultural economies.
Develop Leadership Skills. KEYSTONE 21 seeks proposals to develop leadership at every level of the food system. Leadership development should foster teamwork, partnerships, and collaboration.
Create New Definitions of Scholarship and New Reward Systems. KEYSTONE 21 seeks proposals to explore this issue in the context of education and research on the food system. We are particularly interested in proposals that will explore new definitions of scholarship that value and reward broad, diverse, multi-faceted approaches to research, teaching, and service.
Develop Learner-Centered Education Programs. KEYSTONE 21 seeks proposals to create formal and non-formal educational offerings based on a learner-centered approach. Examples might include learning through teamwork and learning as service to the community.
Contact the KEYSTONE 21 office for more information on the focus areas and to request proposal guidelines.
Submission deadline 11/15/98
Funding Start Date 2/1/99
Submission deadline 8/15/98
Funding Start Date 11/1/98
Contact the KEYSTONE 21 office for the proposal guidelines today!
This publication is available in alternative media on request.
The KEYSTONE 21 project is an affirmative action, equal opportuntiy
project.