At a glance
When monitoring and evaluating the implementation of your food service guidelines initiative, consider several factors. These factors include the feasibility of your plans, the types of data available, whether the data are appropriate for your setting, the people affected, and whether there are any co-benefits.
Overview
When monitoring and evaluation are applied to implementation of food service guidelines, consider the long-term goals of your initiative. Give thought to what is feasible to monitor in terms of cost, availability of personnel to conduct the audits, and time.
Other decisions should be based on:
- Types of data you can obtain. Examples include point-of-sale, procurement, production, and menu data.
- Whether the data type is appropriate for the setting, meaning where foods are sold, served, or given away.
- Reach and populations impacted.
- Whether potential co-benefits, such as support of local farms, job growth, and cost-savings due to waste reduction will be considered.
As you monitor and evaluate food service guidelines, work with your evaluator to answer questions of interest to others affected by food service guidelines. These include leaders, champions, partners, vendors, consumers, and more. Such representatives may be a part of your food service guidelines team or coalition and can advise you accordingly. If not on your team or coalition, you can gain their input through public meetings, interviews with key individuals, or other methods.
Definitions
Monitoring uses periodic data collection (such as audits) to track implementation progress. This lets you know if you are on track to achieve your goals.
Evaluation determines the effectiveness of your program or initiative. This helps you understand why your program may or may not be working.
Next steps
