In the first half of 2017, I helped revive the Wisconsin Farm to School Newsletter, a publication that connects and supports garden education efforts. The newsletter had been housed at DATCP, and was now transitioning to the purview of Community GroundWorks and their partners. We expanded the reach of this newsletter to include Farm to Early Childcare and Education (ECE). I coordinated content from multiple contributors to send out two newsletters a month.
Collaborators:
Farm to School Steering Committee, including:
Jill Carlson Groendyk, Farm to Early Care and Education Trainer
Beth Hanna, Farm to School Coordinator, Community GroundWorks
Vanessa Herald, Farm to Institution Specialist, Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems
Renata Solan, Communications Manager, Community GroundWorks
Marlie Wilson, Farm to School Program Coordinator, DATCP
Goals of Farm to School Steering Committee:
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- Re-engage audience from previous iteration of listserve at Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP).
- Connect educators, farmers, and adminsitrators with resources, funding, and stories that support integrating education, childcare, and community with socio-economically equitable and ecologically resilient food production.
- Send out two editions of the newsletter per month.
Project Documents:
Document Title: Newsletter Instructions and Checklist
Authors: Amanda Hoffman
Editors and Contributors: Beth Hanna, Vanessa Herald
Date Completed: July 1, 2017
Document Description: Beth and Vanessa requested that I provide instructions and a checklist to facilitate the next newsletter coordinator.
Document Title: Newsletter Timeline
Authors: Amanda Hoffman
Editors and Contributors: Beth Hanna, Vanessa Herald
Date Completed: July 1, 2017
Document Description: Beth and Vanessa requested that I provide a “timeline” to instruct the next newsletter coordinator as to how much time it takes to construct and edit the newsletter.
Document Title: Newsletter Collaborative Construction Google Doc (Example 1)
Authors: Amanda Hoffman
Editors and Contributors: Beth Hanna, Vanessa Herald
Date Completed: April 25, 2017
Document Description: This is an example of the collaborative Google doc that the newsletter contributors and I used to compile items, track progress, and construct the newsletter.
Document Title: First Newsletter (Example 1), Second Newsletter (Example 2), First ECE-inclusive Newsletter (Example 3), Newsletter with “Garden Songs” Appeal (Example 4)
Edited: Amanda Hoffman
Contributors: Farm to School Steering Committee
Example 1 – January 24, 2017: This is the first newsletter that I edited, formatted, and sent out. I was new to graphic design and communications. The committee appreciated the effort. Beth set to work designing a beautiful template, featured in the following editions of the newsletter.
Example 2 – February 14, 2017: This is the first example of the newsletter, based off of the new template.
Example 3 – April 24, 2017: This is the first newsletter that included a Farm to ECE section.
Example 4 – May 9, 2017: This newsletter features a piece I wrote, advertising the “Garden Songs” project I conducted with Community GroundWorks.
Success Stories:
- We revived and improved the newsletter and sent out two editions a month. At DATCP, the newsletter was sent out twice a month, then reduced to once a month due to limited time and staff. Vanessa and Beth shared that “These things take time to get established. They are undervalued and underfunded. It’s such a simple and powerful tool…” They see growth in the current form of the newsletter. “In it’s previous life, it wasn’t as streamlined and collaborative even though it was one organization.”
- The newsletter connected recipients to resources, and to each other. “People see it as a one-way communication,” Beth and Vanessa commented, “but it’s more than that…We use the feature story to show off an organization, and encourage people to reach out to them. We hear over and over how partners rely on the information in it…They want it, they need it and it quickly gets on the chopping block.”
- The newsletter supplied a helpful platform for supporting Community GroundWorks’ new Farm to ECE efforts. After a couple of months of the newsletter, we simply plugged in a new section, entitled “Farm to ECE,” highlighting the goals and intended audience of the newsletter.
- The newsletter augmented my other Agroecology portolio projects. I sent out an item requesting feedback on my “Garden Songs” project, which garnered responses, interest, and input.
Read the Farm to School Newsletter Project Profile to learn more about the journey of this collaboration.