Food-Related Programming in Public Gardens a Report By
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Food-Related Programming in Public Gardens A Report By Benveniste Consulting June 2016 1 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................... 4 2. Thanks and Acknowledgements ........................................................................ 5 3. Executive Summary ........................................................................................... 6 4. Methods ............................................................................................................ 8 Survey .............................................................................................................................. 8 Interviews ......................................................................................................................... 8 5. Garden Profiles ............................................................................................... 10 6. Activities & Programs ...................................................................................... 13 Gardens Offer a Broad Range of Food-Related Activities .............................................. 13 Education Programs ....................................................................................................... 15 Offsite Activities & Programs ......................................................................................... 16 Collaborations ................................................................................................................ 17 Great Food Programs Come in Gardens of All Sizes ...................................................... 20 7. Goals ............................................................................................................... 22 Challenges to Achieving Goals ....................................................................................... 24 Influence on Institutional Mission and Vision ................................................................. 26 8. Outcomes, Evaluation Methods, and Impacts ................................................. 28 Outcomes ....................................................................................................................... 28 Evaluation Methods ....................................................................................................... 29 Impacts ........................................................................................................................... 31 Diversity ......................................................................................................................... 32 Fundraising .................................................................................................................... 34 Career Opportunities ..................................................................................................... 35 2 Sustainability .................................................................................................................. 36 Media Coverage ............................................................................................................. 37 9. The Role of the American Public Gardens Association .................................... 39 Food Program Support .................................................................................................. 39 Food Session Ideas for Future Conferences ................................................................... 40 Appendix A –Supplemental Survey Tables ......................................................... 42 Appendix B –Interview Responses ..................................................................... 48 Respondents’ Extended Description of Program Activities (Q1 and Q2) ....................... 48 Description of food-related program/activity goals (Q3) ............................................... 54 Challenges to achieving food program goals (Q4) ......................................................... 62 Important food program collaborators (Q5) .................................................................. 69 Future food program collaborators (Q6) ........................................................................ 74 Important food program outcomes (Q7) ........................................................................ 78 Food program evaluation methods (Q8) ........................................................................ 82 Food program impacts on diversity (Q9a) ...................................................................... 86 Food program impacts on fundraising goals (Q9b) ........................................................ 90 Food program impacts on sustainability operations (Q9c) ............................................. 92 Food program impacts on media coverage (Q9d) ......................................................... 94 Influence of food programs on institutional mission/vision (Q10) .................................. 95 How the American Public Gardens Association can support food programming at public gardens (Q11) ................................................................................................................ 99 Food session ideas at future conferences/interest in joining section (Q12) ................. 102 Career opportunities linked to food programs (Q13) .................................................. 105 Future funding (Q14) ................................................................................................... 106 Appendix C – Qualtrics Report ........................................................................ 108 3 1. Introduction The purpose of this research was to investigate the prevalence and depth of food- related programs currently offered by members of the American Public Gardens Association. This research is comprised of two parts, survey and interviews. The survey was implemented first, as it was designed to generate a basic understanding of the activities, education program focus, impacts and barriers connected with food-related programming offered by public gardens. The survey was sent to all 584 members of the American Public Gardens Association in February 2016, and the analysis of the survey data was submitted in April. Shortly after, interviews were conducted with program administrators or executive directors/CEOs of 16 public gardens of all sizes with active food programs. The purpose of these interviews was to get a richer description of food program activities, goals, program collaborators, program outcomes, methods for evaluating outcomes, impacts, and the role that the American Public Gardens Association could play in supporting these programs. Taken together, the survey data and the interview responses offer a snapshot of how public gardens currently understand and value their food-related programs in the context of institutional mission and operations. This report integrates the survey and interview findings for use and dissemination by the American Public Gardens Association at its annual conference in Miami, Florida in June 2016. This year’s conference will also mark the inaugural year of a new Food & Agriculture professional section. The Leichtag Foundation, in collaboration with the American Public Gardens Association, provided guiding interest and financial support for this research, which was conducted by Benveniste Consulting with input from Erin Kinley, a graduate student at the Longwood Garden/University of Delaware graduate program in public horticulture. 4 2. Thanks and Acknowledgements This report is an outcome – surely not the last – of a long-standing focus by the American Public Gardens Association on food issues and the role of public gardens in the sustainable food systems arena. Public Garden, the Association’s quarterly publication, has devoted multiple issues, in whole or in part, to these topics over its long history. Of special note was the 2010, Volume 25, Number 3 Issue, devoted to “The Food Movement rising” as Michael Pollan’s article expressed it. Celebrity chef profiles (Mario Batali, Lidia Bastianich, Michel Nischan), beautiful edible garden advice (Rosalind Creasy), a reflection on how local food was (and is) integral to the mission of the Cleveland Botanical Garden (Natalie Ronayne) and thoughtful reflections on how food gardening and climate change concerns are fundamentally connected (Anna Lappe) – all were beautifully captured in that issue. In 2010 – yes, same year -- Richard Piacentini of the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens had pulled together a dozen other public gardens at the annual conference to form the American Public Gardens Association Healthy Food Garden Task Force. That initiative developed a formal action agenda that was followed by a nationally attended conference, “Feeding the Spirit,” that Phipps hosted in Pittsburgh in fall 2011. The Obama White House Let’s Move/Let’s Grow initiative was a part of that inspiration. In the past year, there has been a re-grouping of gardens and people committed to food and agriculture programming at public gardens. The goal is to advance the ways in which public gardens grow, educate, model, train, employ, and innovate, using food as a means and as an end. It turns out that food-related programming has taken off in directions that few even predicted back in 2010, with a full harvest of ideas and programs that can be shared and refined. This report is indebted to the 104 gardens that responded to the survey, and to the sixteen garden administrators and program staff who