Fruit and Vegetable Evaluation Project Overview

The first phase of the fruit and vegetable project is coming to a close and we have already started the second phase. We are more than halfway through the project! We are grateful for all of the hard work WIC staff have dedicated to this project. The second time around we have simplified the process by combining the blue and purple survey. Wichealth.org staff have also discussed with each clinic the easiest way to make sure all participants are followed up with properly and more incentives have been added to increase participant and staff interest.

Client Incentives:

Enrollment (GREEN): Clients receive 1 children’s book for enrolling in the project.

Education (YELLOW or ONLINE): Clients receive an incentive bag including recipes, a growth chart and pad of paper.

Counseling (BLUE): Clients receive an incentive bag including recipes, a bean bag or magnet and a pad of paper.

*Final survey *(ORANGE): Clients receive a Project Fresh recipe book

Smoothie maker prize: Any client enrolled in the project who completes all 4 surveys will be entered in a drawing to win a smoothie maker!

Staff incentives: One clinic will have the opportunity to send 3 staff to the National WIC conference in 2008. The winner will be determined by the greatest participation at the end of the project (those agencies with the most participants completing the final survey as a percent of their target number).

Why We Need Your Clinic

Of all the clinics in Michigan we chose your clinic to help us with the fruit and vegetable evaluation project. Here are some of the reasons why

-We need to be able to represent each ethnic group in our study: your clinic may be the only one in the study that represents African-American clients.
-Your clinic was already familiar with wichealth.org
-We need to represent all demographic areas: rural, urban areas, suburban, big cities, etc.

Tips for the Phase 2

1. Dispose of any surveys from Phase I: Phase 1 surveys are targeted to the adult and Phase 2 surveys are targeted to the client’s child. Your wichealth.org contact would be happy to help you if you are not sure which ones to keep and which ones to throw away.

2. Update your binder: Your wichealth.org contact provided new inserts regarding Phase 2 for your Fruit and Vegetable Education Project binder. Please make sure all surveys are updated to avoid any use of the wrong survey for Phase 2.

3. Education surveys (yellow survey) should be administered AFTER the participant receives their education.

4. Prepare for the next survey: Your wichealth.org contact person is able to help you with this! When a client enrolls in the project administer a green survey to them and then place a blank blue survey in their folder. Next time their folder is pulled staff will remember to administer the blue survey to the client.

5. Keep good communication with your wichealth.org contact: Share your struggles and successes with your wichealth.org contact. Let them know as soon as possible when you need more supplies (surveys, books, stickers)

6. It is important that participants *include their WIC ID *on each survey: Double check to make sure the participant's WIC ID is written on the survey. We want to make sure all your hard work enrolling and following up with clients can be used for our final results.

7. A client can change from online to traditional if they did not complete the online module: If an online participant did not complete the online fruit and vegetable module have them do the fruit and vegetable education at the clinic and fill out a yellow survey afterwards. It is ok for clients to switch from online to traditional at this point because all of the surveys thereafter are the same for online and traditional.

Thank you for your continued supprot of this project!

Article from Winter 2007 wichealthSupport Newsletter