Evaluation is the fifth step. But don’t save it for last. Evaluating and monitoring your progress should occur throughout your process. Evaluation can answer such questions as, “How are we doing?” and, “Are we achieving our desired outcomes?”
Evaluation Tells the Story of What You Did and How You Did It
The Action Plan can illustrate how we can use the Safe and Healthy Pantries Project tools to evaluate your progress.
That was a simple example that can tell the story of the adoption of a nutrition policy.
If the pantry wants to tell a more complex story, they can also add further tasks such as sharing the nutrition policy.
- They can measure how the nutrition policy was communicated. They can do this by surveying the key stakeholders or interviewing key informants.
- Another way of measuring how the nutrition policy was communicated would be to look back at records and see how many methods were utilized to communicate the policy.
For example, the policy was communicated:
- With pantry guests by posting a poster at the pantry,
- With donors by distributing donor letters,
- With volunteers by writing a paragraph in volunteer bulletins
- With the board of directors by a presentation from the pantry director.
Data Collection Strategies & Measurement Tools
Many of you will have your measurement tools in your toolbox by completing self-assessments and the action plan and keeping good records.
Here are some of the measurement tools you can use:
- Food pantry guest interviews
- Interviewing key informants
- Record keeping
- Self-Assessments
- Post Training Evaluation
- More to come at: https://fyi.extension.wisc.edu/safehealthypantries/
Tools to Support You
