Garden Evaluation
SETTING GOALS AND DECIDING WHAT TO MEASURE
Evaluation helps you stay on course to achieve your goals. A result that seems off lets you know it’s time to correct course.
Setting clear, measurable and do-able goals for your garden is the first step
STEP 1: WHAT IS YOUR GOAL?
The goal is not your project itself--instead it is the reason why you are doing your project. Don't confuse activities with goals.
So, if you are working on a community garden:
the goal IS NOT the act of creating a community garden
the goal IS increasing food access, providing youth opportunities, etc.
Additionally, goals should be:
Directly related to your issue & something you can and will measure. For example:
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If you want to help families that don’t have enough food, your GOAL is TO INCREASE FOOD ACCESS.
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If you want to help garden participants improve nutrition, your GOAL is TO IMPROVE UNDERSTANDING OF NUTRITION
Do-able. For example:
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DOABLE: Increase food access.
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HARDER: Improve health.
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DOABLE: Improve job skills.
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HARDER: Create jobs.
A note on "do-ability":
We often see garden projects with goals such as "decrease BMI," "decrease diabetes rates" and "improve health." You want to ensure you aren't expecting results from your garden that are near impossible to track.
Tracking specific health data can be challenging and invasive. You might need to weigh people before and after, know private health status, etc. It’s also very difficult to determine if changes in health are a result of your garden and YOUR GARDEN ONLY. Many factors can affect health status -- a new exercise program, diet, medication, or a combination!
STEP 2. NOW YOU HAVE YOUR GOAL. WHAT DO YOU MEASURE TO TRACK IT?
Now it’s time to determine what to measure. Ask yourself if the information you’re collecting tells you whether you’ve met your goal. Take a look at the examples below. One strategy provides information clearly connected to increasing food access. The other strategy provides interesting information, but doesn’t demonstrate increased food access.
Example 1: GOAL= Increased Food Access
Evaluation Plan: What's Measured
- Lbs of food donated (or sales)
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# of people served
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% people who self-report increased intake of fresh fruits and vegetables
Example 2: GOAL= Increased food access
Evaluation Plan: What's Measured
- # Hours spent outside in the garden
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Reduced food miles/ carbon footprint
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increased job skills
Again, this is interesting information, but how will these measurements tell you whether your program increased food access?
A volunteer plants seeds at Little Washington Growing Group's garden.
STEP 3. YOUR TURN TO TRY
Download the tool below. It includes examples, and you can use the empty boxes to fill in your own GOALS. NEXT, explore other tabs at the top to help you fill out the WHAT and HOW columns.