A three-year collaborative effort to develop practical food-safety training resources for produce farms has received regional recognition. TRAIN: Targeted Resources Addressing Identified Needs, a mixed-media toolkit developed through a USDA NIFA-funded project, received second place in the Eastern Region in the National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (NEAFCS) Educational Curriculum Package category. Overall national winners will be announced this fall.
Since 2023, Nicole Cook and University of Maryland colleague Dr. Shauna Henley, along with the University of New Mexico, and private-industry partners have developed the TRAIN project. The project is designed to help small and medium-sized farms that grow, harvest, pack, or hold produce covered by the FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Produce Safety Rule strengthen their food-safety practices and build a culture that supports the production of safe, nutritious food.
Cook says the project began with listening to the agricultural community. “We learned that farm workers value short, interactive training resources that use realistic, real-world scenarios, particularly those that reflect the experiences of Mid-Atlantic farms.” In response, the project team developed a mixed-media toolkit for farm workers and supervisors.
The toolkit includes short, interactive, web-based tutorials and games, a supervisor’s manual for leading worker trainings, and printed materials—including innovative tools such as coasters designed for use during in-person breakout activities. The team also developed a Train-the-Trainer workshop to help educators and farm supervisors effectively use the materials.
The toolkit was piloted on farms in 2025 and is currently being evaluated for its effectiveness in changing worker behaviors and strengthening food-safety practices. As the project moves forward, we are making the resources available to small and mid-sized farmers who can use them to support and sustain a culture of food safety on their farms.
The TRAIN project also has been recognized within the food-safety community. In December 2025, the project team published an article about the research and development of the toolkit in Food Protection Trends, the journal of the International Association for Food Protection.
The TRAIN toolkits and training resources are available at ProduceTRAINer.org.
