More Resources, More Impact- PGP Evaluation Webinar Recap
Posted: April 21, 2016
Categories: GoodFoodBites / News from Sustain Ontario / Videos
Did you miss the April 14 More Resources, More Impact webinar? It’s not too late! Recorded webinar and slide presentation are available now.
Through the webinar, Sustain Ontario, in partnership with FoodShare Toronto and Eco-Ethonomics shared key deliverables from the Partnership Grant Program (PGP) Evaluation Project.
In his opening remarks, Sustain Ontario Executive Director, Phil Groff, offered thanks to the hundreds of organizations and individuals who collaborated in this highly successful project. He also highlighted the importance of evaluation in effective project analysis and in creating maximum benefit for our members, clients, donors, and other stakeholders.
Ryan Turnbull, Founder and Principal of Eco-Ethonomics explained that the PGP Evaluation Project aimed to produce replicable and accessible tools for organizations in Ontario’s food sector to use in implementing their own evaluation processes. The project resulted in production of a Financial Mobilization Scan, contributions to an online Resource Sharing Library, Collective Impact Map of Ontario’s food movement, and a cross-program tracking tool.
The Financial Mobilization Scan gathered data from 32 organizations engaged in food system work in Ontario. Devon Gregory, Research Associate of Eco-Ethonomics, shared statistics from the scan that revealed lower rates of funding in the areas of regulation and policy, health and nutritional quality of food, and food access compared to higher rates of funding for food education, food marketing, food production and distribution, retail outlets, and workforce development. More data from the scan is available in the webinar.
Angela Elzinga Cheng, Urban Agriculture and Community Food Animation Manager and Yara Janes, Evaluations and UA Community Food Animation Facilitator of FoodShare Toronto shared information about the agency’s use of tracking tools and highlighted the need for tracking organizational wide qualitative data and evaluating every projects of FoodShare for better performance. Yara Janes explained how FoodShare’s updated tracking system tool, with aggregated data calculator, will strengthen the organizational evaluation process and provide better understanding of project impacts.
Over 200 evaluation resources were gathered, sorted and categorized through the the PGP Evaluation project. Many of them will be included in an online Resource Sharing Library being created by Sustain Ontario. The online resource repository is scheduled to launch during Local Food Week, June 6 – 12, 2016.
Debbie Field, Executive Director of FoodShare Toronto, concluded the webinar with thanks and comments on the importance of the evaluation tools and how they will benefit many other stakeholders in long term.