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| navigate: home: magazine: fall 2000: article | |
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Cooperative Extension and Continuing Education partnership Food service workers benefit from food safety training workshops By Susan J. Burlingame | ||||||
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In December 1998, the Capital Region Outreach Council, comprised of about 20 people from Penn State Outreach and Cooperative Extension, Continuing Education units from several campuses and community leaders, met to set priorities for action in the coming year. They knew that a new Pennsylvania law, the Pennsylvania Food Employee Certification Act, was pending and that food safety was a high-profile issue for citizens in Pennsylvania. The law would mandate that at least one person in a managerial position in every licensed food establishment in the Commonwealth be trained in food safety. Also, the committee knew that an estimated 9,000 deaths are caused by foodborne illnesses in the United States each year, and about 95 percent of those illnesses are caused by the mishandling of food. Food safety was becoming a national hot topic. Armed with this knowledge, this group of Cooperative Extension and Continuing Education professionals decided that a proactive approach to the food safety issue could yield impressive results and equip food handlers in the region with the necessary knowledge and certification. The group set a goal to provide Food Safety Certification training in every county in the Capital Region at accessible sites. “The Outreach Council realized this issue was critical from day one and that we could address it as a joint effort between Continuing Education and Outreach,” noted Dr. Michelle Rodgers, regional director for Cooperative Extension and Outreach, Capital Region, who was a leading member of the Outreach Council. “We knew this law was coming, so in order to meet the needs of the community, we tried to be proactive in preparing to be responsive to the Pennsylvania legislation. We didn’t want to sit around and talk. We wanted to be an action council.” For the past two-and-a-half years, Cooperative Extension agents in the Capital Region had been conducting a food safety certification program called ServSafe® at a few sites. This training, Rodgers pointed out, “was done without the benefit of the organizational and marketing expertise that Continuing Education would bring.” The ServSafe® Food Safety Certification program is a nationally recognized, well-respected 16-hour certification program. The Outreach Council chose ServSafe® as the model to use to fulfill its goal. A subcommittee was formed to write a grant proposal to fund the offering of ServSafe® training in all seven Capital Region counties: Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Lancaster, Lebanon and York. The proposal was funded on May 21, 1999. “The joint effort between Cooperative Extension and Continuing Education utilized the best expertise of both organizations, elevating the quality of the educational program, as well as the efficiency and effectiveness of all involved,” Rodgers said. “At that point, we really got geared up to do this project.” She served as a liaison between the Outreach Council and the ServSafe®committee. “We had to get permission for the ServSafe® trademark from the National Restaurant Association and work through the organizational process issues relative to each organization,” she pointed out. Lancaster County Extension Agent Nancy Wiker, who had previously taught the ServSafe® course, was a member of the Outreach Council, as well as the Food Safety subcommittee which drafted the funding proposal. Noting that the University had been addressing the topic of food safety over the last few years, she said they called upon the advice of others who were working in food safety and met with Continuing Education representatives to decide just what the training would entail. “Working with Continuing Education was a new venture, but a very positive experience,” Wiker noted. “We had a lot of dedication, and it was a real team effort.” The Food Safety Certification training course offered through Penn State included topics such as contamination and foodborne illness; storage, preparation and serving; and food safety regulations and standards. It was designed for food service managers, chefs, caterers, cooks, health officials and inspectors. Wiker coordinated training for the Cooperative Extension agents who were going to be teaching the course. “We wanted everyone to use the same materials and activities so that the training would be consistent throughout the region,” she said. Eventually, all Capital Region Cooperative Extension agents were trained to teach the ServSafe® course. There is one family living agent who is certified in each county. Agents who are not teaching ServSafe® teach food safety to volunteer cooks and consumers as part of other programs. Agents also answer many food safety questions over the phone. By late summer 1999, only about three months since the proposal had been approved for funding, the Food Safety subcommittee was ready to offer the pilot program, which enrolled students in fall 1999. The frenzied summer included doing a marketing plan, deciding what to teach and how to teach it, planning the budget, deciding how they would register students and how the course would be evaluated, compiling a mailing list and much more. Successful participants would earn 1.6 continuing education units. The group also sent out 6,000 brochures, which had been planned and designed as a joint effort by Continuing Education and Cooperative Extension professionals. “Each agent offered something different to the mix,” said Wiker, noting that their individual strengths in writing, budgeting, networking and food safety helped them put together a balanced, comprehensive proposal and ultimately an effective certification course. “The Continuing Education contacts we worked with were all very helpful in implementing the program.” Five Cooperative Extension agents offered the pilot course in the fall. Wiker taught in Lancaster, Letie Schadler taught in Lebanon County, and Adams County Extension Agent Nina Redding taught in Franklin and Adams counties. Marg Malehorn, Cumberland County’s agent, taught in her home county, as well as Dauphin, and Beth Whitman-Pitzer taught the course in York County. The fall 1999 program enrolled 82 students. Rodgers was extremely pleased with the outcome of the program. “We had fabulous success,” she said. “We had 98 percent of participants pass the exam, and 95 percent said their level of competence was increased as a result of attending the workshops.” These statistics were gathered in a post-training evaluation developed by Penn State’s Outreach Office of Marketing Research and completed by participants. Other significant numbers include 87 percent of respondents indicating they were very satisfied with the food safety workshops and 82 percent finding the workshops to be very helpful. The Food Safety Training Evaluation document aided the organizers in modifying the course for spring 2000. One new issue being addressed is the need to be responsive to workshop participants from different cultures. The text is already available in Spanish, but some Chinese-speaking and other individuals for whom English is a second language have enrolled in future courses. Other changes suggested by evaluation respondents related to time, content and instructional materials. By working with faculty in Penn State’s Food Science Department, whose effort was simultaneous with the Capital Region effort, the workshop developers were able to keep in touch with the state requirements and receive leadership from the Commonwealth. The ServSafe® model became the pilot for a statewide program that will be implemented in fall 2000. Rodgers and Wiker both served on the statewide committee. The Food Safety Certification Training project, which involved seven counties and four Continuing Education units, helped the Outreach Council write guidelines about what Continuing Education and Cooperative Extension should do when they work in a partnership. “The model of Continuing Education and Cooperative Extension working together is a true success,” Rodgers said. “This is really an example of how new synergies have been formed for Penn State to best meet the needs of the community. We paired the strengths of both [Continuing Education and Cooperative Extension] to make really phenomenal outcomes. It’s been a real win-win situation.” ServSafe® is a registered trademark of The Education Foundation of the National Restaurant Association | |||||
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© 2002 Outreach Communications, Outreach & Cooperative Extension, The Pennsylvania State University phone: (814) 865-8108, fax: (814) 863-2765, e-mail: outreachnews@outreach.psu.edu |
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