Moving the Food Movement Forward in Michigan

Since 2015, Lesli Hoey has led a research team to conduct an external evaluation of several food systems initiatives – funded through the WK Kellogg Foundation and led by Michigan State University’s (MSU) Center for Regional Food Systems (CRFS) – which aim to build the capacity of actors across Michigan to create a more equitable, economically viable, sustainably and healthy food system, goals set out in the Michigan Good Food Charter. Hoey’s team blends several evaluation approaches – including Developmental Evaluation (Patton), Utilization-Focused Evaluation (Patton), Empowerment Evaluation (Fetterman), Realist Evaluation (Pawson & Tilly) – to carry out an adaptive, collaborative, capacity-building, equity-oriented, and asset-based evaluation. Hoey’s team and CRFS partners have shared the lessons learned from this work through publications about collective impact and food hubs, as well as nationally-distributed policy briefs about collective impact, food hubs, and food councils.

Faculty

Lesli Hoey