Colorado State University Extension
SafeFood Rapid Response Network
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SPRING EXTENSION SPOTLIGHT: COLLABORATIVE RETAIL FOOD HANDLER TRAININGS
Edited by: Marissa Bunning, Ph.D., Mary Schroeder, M.S., R.D, Pat Kendall, Ph.D., R.D., Colorado State - Spring 2007
For restaurants and other establishments that prepare, handle and serve food, employee training is a key step in maintaining a safe environment and preventing foodborne illnesses among customers. In an ongoing effort to educate food industry professionals, Extension agents have collaborated with local health departments across Colorado to conduct food handler trainings for retail food establishments and other food-handling entities. This issue will spotlight the work of Extension agents in three areas across Colorado who use the CSU-developed Food Safety Works food handler program. The classes are generally 3 hours long, interactive, and include a pre/post evaluation to measure knowledge change among participants.
In Larimer County, Edie McSherry has been conducting Food Safety Works trainings since January 2005. She conducts about 15 classes each year, mostly for retail food establishments, with 15-25 participants attending each class. McSherry works closely with the Larimer County Health Department restaurant inspection team to market the program to local restaurants, which pay $25 per employee to attend the one-time training.
McSherry is currently adding an additional resource person to target businesses with bilingual or Spanish-speaking workers with six trainings planned for Spanish-speaking food workers. She attributes her program success to strong collaborative ties that have been established between CSU Extension, the local health department and county commissioners, who value the benefit of this program in the community.
In southern Colorado, Family and Consumer Science Extension agent Gale Miller leads food safety trainings for Fremont and Custer Counties. For nine years, Miller has been working with local environmental health departments in these counties, conducting 3 to 4 trainings per year. Environmental health professionals provide publicity for the Food Safety Works trainings to local retail food establishments through mailed notices inscribed with health department letterhead and distribution of class flyers during routine health inspections. According to Miller, Environmental Health staff members help lend credibility to the program by attending the Food Safety Works classes to answer questions specifically related to rules and regulations. At the end of each class, participants receive a safe food handler wallet card, a copy of which many employers keep on file to demonstrate their establishment's commitment to food safety.
In the western region, CSU Extension agents Jeanne Rice and Rhonda Follman have become key players in establishing the Food Safety Works program through their collaboration with Departments of Health and Human Services in six counties. The participating counties (known collectively as Region 10) include Delta, Montrose, Ouray, San Miguel, Hinsdale, and Gunnison. Per Follman, these six counties pooled their resources to apply for grant funding through the Colorado Trust as part of a larger food safety initiative, in order to provide food handler trainings to area retail food establishments. Enough funding was obtained to schedule 34 classes among the six counties, which began in October 2006 and continues through September of this year. Rice and Follman receive assistance from their local health inspectors for advertising and meeting spaces.
To date, 14 classes have been provided, primarily to retail food establishments, with plans to also include food workers in jails, long-term care facilities, and hospitals. Individuals from volunteer groups, such as school or county fair concessionaires, have also attended the trainings. Their special grant funding allows them to charge a minimal participant fee of only $5 each. Additionally, each participant receives a take-home pocket thermometer to help reinforce the importance of proper food temperatures in prevention of foodborne illness. The counties involved in the project are planning to seek continued funding for the program, and to add classes taught in Spanish.
In each of these Colorado regions, the common theme is collaboration. Extension agents report that establishing a good working relationship between Extension and local health departments is a key factor in being able to maximize limited resources to achieve a greater outcome for all. A formalized partnership can then be established with a defined mission and purpose "to prevent and decrease the incidence of foodborne illness regionally by implementing food safety classes for food handlers and the public." In these times of increasingly tight budgets, it is encouraging to see that Extension agents such as those highlighted here are finding ways to offer successful programs like Food Safety Works to help fulfill an important need in their local communities.
