The ECOP Monday Minute will be on hiatus until January 8, 2024. Happy and safe holidays to all!

Long History of Cooperative Extension and the National Agricultural Statistics Service Renewed

For many decades, the Cooperative Extension Service has enjoyed a warm working relationship with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). A Memorandum of Understanding (2023-2028) was recently signed to continue this important work. Pictured above are ECOP Chair Damona Doye, Oklahoma State University (left), and NASS Administrator Hubert Hamer (right) at a ceremonial signing, conducted at the APLU annual meeting in Seattle. 



CYFAR RFA Available - The USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) requests applications for new Children, Youth and Families at Risk (CYFAR) Sustainable Community Projects (SCP) for fiscal year 2024. The due date is February 15, 2024. The mission of the CYFAR program is to marshal resources of the Land-grant and Cooperative Extension Systems so that, in collaboration with other organizations, they can develop and deliver educational programs that equip youth who are at-risk for not meeting basic human needs with the skills they need to lead positive, productive, contributing lives. Consider attending one of the webinars on January 8 at 3:00 PM ET or January 11 at 5:00 PM ET.

Open Science at USDA - Public access is a critical part of the USDA and National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA) support of Open Science. USDA Departmental Regulation (DR) 1020-006 makes all peer-reviewed, scholarly publications and digital scientific research data assets arising from unclassified scientific research, “supported wholly or in part by the USDA,” accessible to the public to the extent practicable. There is a frequently asked questions document and webinar recording, which covers some information that Extension professionals who publish in scholarly publications might find useful.

2024 National Health Outreach and Engagement Conference Proposals - The planning committee for the 2024 National Health Outreach and Engagement Conference  is now accepting proposals for concurrent sessions and posters at next year’s conference (May 13-15, 2024). The conference will be hosted by University of Georgia, Clemson University, and NCSU Extension Services in Greenville, SC. Proposals may focus on any health-related topic including mental health, well-being, transdisciplinary research, implementation science, workforce development, community engagement, health equity, data utilization, place-based interventions, environmental health, housing, health systems and services, food systems, social determinants of health, coalition development, and youth development as a health strategy. Guidelines for preparing proposals can be found here and submitted through the submission portal no later than February 4, 2024.

Intro to Migrant Education Program - The folks that run the Migrant Education Program (MEP) are asking for help get the word out about their effort. This is a nationally funded program through the Department of Education that has existed since 1966. Many farmworker families move during the year or every couple of years in search of work. Many children fall behind in school due to these moves. The Identification and Recruitment Consortium (IDRC) includes 32 Migrant Education Programs. The children they serve are children of farmworkers who have moved in the last three years. They have resources to help more kids graduate from school, assist with life skills classes, language development and more. They would like to share more with Extension Services in each state about this program. Please email jcastanedaidr@gmail.com or call 931-273-4050 for more information.

Read more about IDRC: https://www.idr-consortium.net/Agriculture%20site/index.html
Access information from the Department of Education: https://oese.ed.gov/offices/office-of-migrant-education/
More about MEP: https://results.ed.gov/

2024 NEDA Meeting in Louisville

The 2024 National Extension Directors and Administrators (NEDA) Meeting will take place in Downtown Louisville, Kentucky on September 17-19. Please update calendars with the location. The ECOP Meeting, New Extension Directors and Administrators orientation, and kick-off dinner will take place on September 17. Cooperative Extension Section business, dialogue, and leadership learning experiences will begin the morning of September 18, and conclude midday on September 19. Registration details, hotel information, and much more will be released during the second quarter of 2024. 

Speaking of Calendars - Click Here to view ECOP's Calendar that includes a few recent updates. 

USDA Announces Draft National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics - The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have released a Draft National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics. The strategy was shared at the USDA-NIFA's Institute of Food Safety and Nutrition (IFSN) Community Nutrition Project Directors' Meeting in New Orleans on December 4. The four main objectives in the draft National Strategy are:

• Prevent the loss of food where possible.
• Prevent the waste of food where possible.
• Increase the recycling rate for all organic waste.
• Support policies that incentivize and encourage food loss and waste prevention and organics recycling.

USDA National Climate Change Roadmap - A new resource, National Climate Change Roadmap - A Research Framework for Agriculture, Forestry and Working Lands, funded by USDA-NIFA and led by researchers from Colorado State University and Meridian Institute, was released recently. Within USDA, this report is a resource for program leaders to consider when developing strategies to support climate-smart agriculture and forestry as part of the research, Extension and education work at Land-grant Institutions and non-Land-grant Colleges and Universities. This resource was presented at the APLU Annual Meeting in Seattle.

USDA Now Accepting Loan Applications Online - The USDA has launched an online application for Direct Loan customers. More than 26,000 customers who submit a Direct Loan application each year can now use an online, interactive, guided application that is paperless and provides helpful features including an electronic signature option, the ability to attach supporting documents such as tax returns, complete a balance sheet and build a farm operating plan.

Through a personalized dashboard, borrowers can borrowers track the progress of their loan application. It can be accessed on farmers.gov or by completing FSA’s Loan Assistance Tool at farmers.gov/loan-assistance-tool. To use the online loan application tool, producers must establish a USDA customer account and a USDA Level 2 eAuthentication (eAuth) account or a Login.gov account. For the initial stage, the online application tool is only available for producers who will be, or are currently, operating their farm as an individual. FSA is expanding the tools availability to married couples applying jointly and other legal entities in 2024.

Glimpses of Results - Trends of Funding Extension Positions

The recording, CES Updates - A Glimpse of 2023 Salary Questionnaire Results and More, highlights a mile-high glimpse at the preliminary results of the national survey to explain national trends in funding 2018-2022 for Extension FTEs for off-campus educators conducted by ECOP. The ECOP Chair Damona Doye, Oklahoma State University, also shares much more. Ashley Stokes, University of Tennessee, recruits professionals for the new Food Systems and Food Waste Program Action Team. Michelle Rodgers, EXCITE Program Director, shares information about the anticipated "Bridge Access" program that is unfolding for 2024. 

New Funding for EXCITE - As Michelle Rogers shared with us at the National Extension Directors and Administrators annual meeting in October, CDC has funded Cooperative Extension with $6 million for one year to focus on the Bridge Access program. This is an awareness campaign, much like Activity 1(A1), to reach uninsured and underinsured individuals with information on how to obtain free COVID19 immunizations. Michelle is grateful to report that we have received support from NIFA EFNEP leadership to provide $4 million of this funding to EFNEP to integrate this information in a whole health effort along with the EFNEP curriculum. This is non-competitive funding with up to $70,000 available to each EFNEP program. Please consider registering for the webinar on December 7, 2023, 3:00 PM ET regarding this program.

ECOP DEI-PAT Announces a New Connect Extension Group - ECOP’s Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Program Action Team (DEI-PAT) is pleased to invite anyone with connect.extension.org credentials to join the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) subgroup. With a commitment to advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility across the Cooperative Extension System and the communities served, the new group is championing diversity, fostering collaboration, and driving equitable opportunities for all. The effort is a complement the DEI-PAT’s information/resource repository site and a place to post blogs, links to relevant articles, generate dynamic discussion, and share programming questions and opportunities.




USDA Soil Testing Survey - The National Urban Agricultural Extension Leaders and the ECOP Urban Agriculture and Food Systems Program Action Team have requested that we send the USDA Office of Urban Agriculture’s USDA Soil Testing Survey to State Extension Directors and Administrators. The survey is short and could easily be completed by your soil testing laboratory or others on your campus.




Important Information on Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program Coverage - In an effort to prevent Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) participants from losing health coverage as a result of the end of the Federal Public Health Emergency. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and U.S. Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona recently released a letter to higher education institution leaders with important information to help connect eligible students and their families with available, affordable health coverage options via Medicaid, CHIP or the Affordable Care Act. To learn more, visit the following websites:

• Joint Letter to Higher Education Leaders
  
  
• Recommended actions for higher education institution leaders to prevent students from losing health coverage
  
  
• Communication tools on Medicaid and CHIP renewals