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What’s New

  

FreshWorks Reports

 New Staff

New Projects

New Publications

 

 California FreshWorks Evaluation Findings Released!


In order to better understand and maximize FreshWorks’ impact, The California Endowment commissioned a two-year evaluation of the program’s food access, social, and economic outcomes. The evaluation team, led by Samuels Center, PCV InSight, Dr. Allison Karpyn of the University of Delaware, and Dr. Karen Glanz of the University of Pennsylvania, documented the development and implementation of FreshWorks while identifying key lessons and insights. Given that FreshWorks is an early example of a state-level fresh food financing initiative, the evaluation provides an opportunity to inform the greater healthy food access movement going forward. To ensure a comprehensive evaluation design, the evaluation team collaborated with key partners, including The California Endowment and Capital Impact Partners, to refine the evaluation plan, methods, and outcomes to be assessed.

The evaluation focused on the impact of three FreshWorks investments made with the purpose of increasing access to healthy food. The evaluation examined three new Northgate González Markets which received New Markets Tax Credit financing through FreshWorks. Northgate González Markets is an independent chain that operates over 40 stores in the southern California region.

The FreshWorks evaluation findings are presented as a series of three reports:

 

Our New Staff


 

The Samuels Center welcomes a new Program Associate, Diego Gamboa, to the team!

 

 diego
 Diego Gamboa

  

New Projects


Evaluation of the Hidden Villa Internship Program
Samuels Center is partnering with Hidden Villa, a nonprofit educational organization, to evaluate its Internship Program. Using a mixed-method design, we are designing and conducting a survey and group discussion with former Hidden Villa interns to measure the impact of the program on participants, including interns’ leadership and career development.

Child Care Nutrition and Physical Activity Focus Groups (Group Interviews)
Choose Health L.A. Child Care

Focus groups are being conducted as part of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Division of Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health’s (LACDPH) efforts to evaluate a project funded by First 5 Los Angeles to increase nutrition and physical activity knowledge among licensed and license exempt child care providers, foster policy development and implementation, and ultimately improve healthy eating and physical activity patterns among children in child care through a series of child care provider training and coaching sessions. The purpose of these 7 follow-up focus groups are to better understand the impact of the training and coaching and perceptions of the effectiveness of the training and coaching to improve provider and child health, the successes and challenges to implementing changes, and thoughts about ways to improve the child care provider nutrition and physical activity training and coaching.

Evaluation of the Mandela/Credibles SNAP Incentive Program
Mandela/Credibles SNAP Incentive Program is a multi-sector, evidence-based approach to increase the purchase and consumption of locally-sourced fruits and vegetables by low-income Alameda County, California SNAP-eligible consumers. We are working with the Mandela MarketPlace project team to develop and implement an evaluation plan and provide evaluation support to answer the overarching question: 

What is the impact of Mandela/Credibles SNAP Incentive Program on patients’ social outcomes and health as measured by changes in obesity/diabetes markers, BMI and perceptions related to healthy food access?

This 3-year evaluation will include an intervention and control group with random enrollment and delayed intervention. A matched pair pre-post survey design will assess participant demographics and perceptions on personal health, social benefits, and access to healthy food. BMI and serum obesity markers will be collected by participants’ providers, and Credibles participation reports will collect redemption rates and types of food purchased.

Reducing Early Childhood Obesity (RECO) Collective Impact Evaluation
We are partnering with Abt Associates on the Reducing Early Childhood Obesity (RECO) Collective Impact Evaluation to examine the collective impact of First 5 LA investments in lowering the rates of childhood obesity in LA County.  As part of this multi-faceted evaluation, we are working to describe the extent to which First 5 LA RECO investments are reaching the intended beneficiaries. This involves collecting detailed information about the scope of First 5 LA RECO investments through grantee reports and in-depth interviews in order to assess the experiences of participants and providers relative to the investments, and examining implementation successes and challenges, for individual investments and collectively across the RECO investments.

 

 

New Publications


Creating healthier afterschool environments in the Healthy Eating Active Communities program: 
A case study of afterschool practices from a five-year community training and technical assistance intervention shows the promise of policy change for promoting healthier afterschool environments

Authors: Arnell J. Hinkle and Sallie Yoshida, New Directions for Youth Development. 2014.143 (2014): 45-55.

This paper describes the HEAC afterschool sector initiative, reviews findings from the nutrition component of the HEAC afterschool evaluation, and concludes with strategies that were used to implement the five-year training and technical assistance intervention initiative.

Policy Improves What Beverages Are Served to Young Children in Child Care 

Authors:  Lorrene D. Ritchie, PhD, RD; Sushma Sharma, PhD; Ginny Gildengorin, PhD; Sallie Yoshida, DrPH, RD; Ellen Braff-Guajardo, JD, MEd; Patricia Crawford, DrPH, RD.  J Acad Nutr Diet. 2014 Sep 11.

The aim of this study was to evaluate changes in beverages served to children aged 2 to 5 years by comparing cross sectional statewide samples of child-care sites before (in 2008) and after (in 2012) the California and federal child care beverage policies were implemented.

Drinking Water in California Child Care Sites Before and After 2011–2012 Beverage Policy

Authors:  Lorrene D. Ritchie, PhD, RD; Sallie Yoshida, DrPH, RD; Sushma Sharma, PhD; Anisha Patel, MD, MSPH; Elyse Homel Vitale, MPH; Ken Hecht, JD. Preventing Chronic Disease, 12 (2015).

This study assessed the extent to which access to water changed in California after federal and state child care beverage policies were instituted in 2011 and 2012. Among the study’s sample, access to water improved significantly pre and post policy implementation.

Is Scratch-Cooking a Cost-Effective Way to Prepare Healthy School Meals with US Department of Agriculture Foods?

Authors:  Gail Woodward-Lopez, MPH, RD; Janice Kao, MPH, RD; Kristin Kiesel, PhD; Markell Lewis Miller, MPH; Maria Boyle, MS, RD; Soledad Drago-Ferguson, MPH; Ellen Braff-Guajardo, JD; Patricia Crawford, DrPH, RD.  J Acad Nutr Diet. 2014 Sep;114(9):1349-58.  

The aim of this study was to determine determine whether school lunch entrées made in a district from basic or raw USDA Foods ingredients can be healthier and less expensive to prepare than those sent to external processors.