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86 CHAPTER 05: CONCLUSION AND NEXT STEPSDiscussion and Lessons LearnedResearchers, funders and practitioners have expressedthe need for a comprehensive evaluation frameworkfor farm to school for several years. This documentis a first step at meeting this felt need for the field offarm to school.This evaluation framework fulfills two significantneeds to guide and proliferate relevant farm toschool research and evaluation. First, the frameworkdescribes a common language for consistentlyarticulating farm to school activities through coreand supporting elements, touch points and actors.Secondly, it identifies priority outcomes, indicatorsand measures for the four sectors of public health,community economic development, education andenvironmental quality, along with an exploration ofcross-sectoral connections among outcomes in thefour sectors.Through the process of engaging stakeholders inthe drafting of this framework, multiple outcomesthat have been studied or hypothesized withindifferent sectors were explored, and the strength ofthose outcomes related to farm to school elementsassessed. These rich discussions revealed that thereis much more agreement from practitioners andresearchers about possible relationships betweenfarm to school activities and outcomes within thesectors of public health and economic developmentas compared to those within the education andenvironmental quality. This may be attributable tothe relatively higher volume of available data, peerreviewedliterature, media attention and the numberof school sites with stated goals related to healthand the economy. Within all four sectors, there wasa relative lack of longitudinal, multifaceted studies.Further, the discussions regarding cross-sectoralconnections are still very much in their infancy, andmuch more work needs to be done in this area.In practice, farm to school activities look surprisinglysimilar on the ground, regardless of whether thedesired goals are related to health, economy,education or the environment. This suggests thepromise of farm to school programs and policiesas a lever to systemically address multiple societalissues related to health, economy, education andthe environment. Actualizing that promise will takeidentifying the commonalities between elementsand outcomes between sectors. For example, atthe confluence of improved behavioral outcomeswithin the sectors of public health, education andthe environment are common mediating variablesrelated to social and emotional development, suchas motivation, self-efficacy and engagement. Thusthe gaps this framework fills in both consistentprogram articulation and identifying priority outcomesfor multiple sectors are critical first steps towardunderstanding the collective impact potential of farmto school activities nationwide.Another major finding of the participatory approachused for developing this framework revealed thereisn’t “one right answer” for prioritizing outcomes,indicators and measures. Rather, the outcomes,indicators and measures identified in this frameworkare based on levels of agreement among participantsand existing information in the literature base.Several of the priority outcomes presented inthe framework do not have readily available datafrom existing data sources, nor are validatedinstruments available for documentation. This isa short-term problem that can be resolved withprioritized efforts in the future to further the field offarm to school. Appendix 5 provides a list of sampledata collection tools appropriate at the program levelfor many of the identified outcomes, indicators andmeasures. This list is not prioritized in any way, ortested by framework developers. It is intended as astarting point for users to consider developing theirown customized tools, if needed.A fuller repository of additional evaluation andtracking tools has been gathered and is availableonline at www.farmtoschool.org.It is anticipated that different stakeholders will usethis framework as a guide to develop, describe,implement and conduct farm to school evaluationand research. Readers are encouraged to work withthe proposed templates for consistent programarticulation, priority outcomes and measures offeredin the evaluation framework and provide feedback onEVALUATION FOR TRANSFORMATION