Evaluating Success
Formally evaluating the operation of your garden market is an ongoing activity that is needed to ensure the continued success of your market and to identify areas for improvement. Employee input can be as valuable in this phase as it is in your initial assessment and planning phases.
Consider the following suggestions for evaluating the operation of a garden market:
- Plan evaluations early. Determine when the evaluations will be conducted and how data will be collected.
- Determine what approvals may be needed for data collection. For example, federal agencies are regulated and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval may be needed. If your assessment is part of a research project, you need to check with the appropriate Institutional Review Board (IRB) to determine what approval will be needed.
- Consider holding follow-up focus groups to assess the operation of the garden market. For more information on developing and conducting focus groups, see the following resources:
- Work with the vendor to gather data about sales and attendance. Are sales decreasing, holding steady, or increasing? Have sales been affected by the weather? Have there been compliments or complaints from employees?
- Consider formally or informally surveying employees while they are shopping at the garden market.
- Consider evaluating if others (such as nearby neighborhood residents or retirees) have benefited from your garden market.
Continually evaluate your garden market and use the information to continually improve it. This can help assure the ongoing success of your garden market.
Garden Market
Example Tools
-
CDC Garden Market Example - Planning Checklist
(PDF-54k) - Focus Group Moderator’s
Guide
(PDF-142k)
Other Helpful Information
- Conducting Effective Focus Groups
- HWI's Evaluation Information
- Office of Management and Budget Regulations
Please note: Some of these publications are available for download only as *.pdf files. These files require Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to be viewed. Please review the information on downloading and using Acrobat Reader software.
* Links to non-Federal organizations found at this site are provided solely as a service to our users. These links do not constitute an endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the Federal Government, and none should be inferred. CDC is not responsible for the content of the individual organization Web pages found at these links.
Page last updated: May 22, 2007
Content Source: Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
