Urban Food Policy Forum: Evaluating Community Food Programs: What do we know? What do we still need to learn?

Evaluating Community Food Programs: What do we know? What do westill need to learn? Evaluation: Funders demand it, policy makers useit, agency directors want it, front-line staff sometimes resent it, andtoo often community residents gain nothing from it. Many of the communityfood programs implemented in New York City in recent years have been evaluated but it‚Äôs sometimes been a challenge to translate findings into more effective practice. In this session, panelists engaged at various levels in the evaluation of community food programs will discuss these questions: 1. What have we learned from evaluations of community food programs in New York City in the last five years? 2. How useful have these evaluationstudies been to making decisions and how could we make them more useful? 3. How can community food programs, policy makers, funders and evaluators work together to build a solid evidence base for decision-making? Our goal is to inform current and future evaluations of community food programs so that five years from now, we can be confident that our programs aremore effective and more efficient. RSVP “