Community Services Foundation Reducing Childhood Hunger Program (Prince George's County FY19 and Beyond)

Story Behind the Curve

CSF is always able to surpass all perfromance measures as far as "How much" however parent participation has always been low. Which is why for the first half of FY19 parent participation was low, but this is attributed to alot of the families that have other obligations like jobs and or other children to pick up from school. During a site visit a site director explained to me some of the parentspart  have more than one part time job which makes it difficult to come to workshops. However, CSF hopes to see more parent involvemet when the warmer weather arrives for grocery trips.

Story Behind the Curve

FY 20- HFY 1- Community Service Foundation- Know Better, live Better, Health and Nutrition Program

PM: Number - % of youth who completed the Maryland Expanded Food and Nutrition classes

The provider stated that parents have not completed the 8 months of the parenting and nutrition classes; therefore, the provider have not met the targeted number yet because sessions did not start until September 2019.

PM: Number- % of parents who reported at the end of the program that they have more confidence in their ability to improve their food insecurities

The provider stated that although they haven’t met their target for parents who have completed the 8 months of formal parenting and nutrition classes, 47 of the parents that we surveyed stated that they have obtained knowledge to make healthy nutritional choices from the site.

HFY2:

Targets not met – Reducing Childhood Hunger

PM: Number of parents who completed eight (8) monthly parenting and nutrition education classes

During Fiscal Year 19; parents faced many challenges which caused a low participation rate in program outcomes. Many parents, especially in the Hispanic communities, did not have stabled employment; therefore affecting their attendance rate when enrolled in any programs. In addition, many parents lived in a single parent household and had many obligations, which affected their participation and completion rates. Currently, the “education” outreach has been successful. The provider expects that the FY20 parent program to result in  higher participation level than experienced in FY19.  Additionally, by the end of FY19, the program implemented an electronic survey tool, through Google Survey, which the provider believes will  allow staff to determine the health and wellness needs/desires of the parents in real time and more effectively work to address those concerns in a more responsive manner.

PM: percentage of parents who reported they have obtained knowledge to make healthy nutritional choices

the measures shows only 38%, but this number is innacurate. The donominator is off.  The accurate measure should read: 47 parents out of 63 parents actually reported that they have obtained knowledged about nutritional choices. The accurate percentage is 75% of parents instead of 38% of parents.  

PM: percentage of parents who reported at the end of the program that they have more confidence in their ability to improve their food insecurities.

the measures shows only 42%, but this number is innacurate. The donominator is off.  The accurate measure should read: 62 parents out of 63 parents actually reported that they have more confidence in thei ability to improve their food insecurities. The accurate percentage is 98% of parents instead of 42% of parents.

HFY1: CSF is always able to surpass all perfromance measures as far as "How much" however parent participation has always been low. Which is why for the first half of FY19 parent participation was low, but this is attributed to alot of the families that have other obligations like jobs and or other children to pick up from school. During a site visit a site director explained that some of the parents   have more than one part time job which makes it difficult to come to workshops. However, CSF hopes to see more parent involvemet when the warmer weather arrives for grocery trips.

Program Summary

The Community Services Foundation (CSF) is a large program with eight diffrent cohorts; because of this, they are able to serve a large amount of youth.

 The CSF Program is offered from 2pm to 6pm each school day. The CSF program academic portion is aligned with the PGCPS’ curriculum in reading and math, it works to help prevent summer learning loss for those FARM students having academic challenges by their respective school.

CSF has targeted its outreach to neighboring schools that have over 60% FARM rate to encourage youth to join their afterr school program. As an after school program they wanted to teach kids how to make a healthy and cheap snack in under an hour. Because of this, they have incorporated healthy nuntrition classes for STEM classes in the evenings. The CSF/OST Program also partners with the Capitol Area Food Bank to provide daily meals, and weekly classes on grocery shopping, healthy meal preparation and nutrition classes at no cost to the participants. 

Target Population

CSF provides services across six schools that have a FARM recipient percentage of 60% and higher, with one school having a 90% FARM recipient percentage. 

The CSF Site Directors work with schools to help disseminate FARM application forms to eligible families at the beginning of each school year and encourage each eligible family to return the forms to the schools.  Although the schools are the primary entity responsible for distributing the FARM forms, CSF believes that their work with the parents helps to increase the submission of the forms to the schools at the beginning of the academic year.

Data Discussion

FHY1 – FY20

How well: % of parents who submit completed FARM application by the 2nd quarter of the academic year

The data is not calculated accurately in the score card: 125/125= 100%