Evaluation of The Community Food System Grants Program: Building the capacity of grassroots food security organizations

United Way Greater Toronto (United Way), in partnership with the General Mills Foundation and Greater Twin Cities United Way, piloted a grant stream intended to strengthen Mississauga’s food system. The grant had a strong emphasis on building the evaluation capacity of funded organizations. United Way hired TNC to complete an environmental scan of Mississauga’s food system (prior to and after the implementation of the grants program), provide evaluation specific capacity building supports, coaching and technical assistance to each organization, and to evaluate the grant stream as a whole. We worked closely with grantees to develop a theory of change and shared evaluation framework (including co-designed indicators) for the grants program as a whole, and also supported grantees to develop and carry out their own unique evaluation plans. Each grantee delivered different programming (i.e., community gardens, food skills programming, food rescue, strategic planning) and differed in their level of evaluation capacity. The project culminated in the delivery of a final report and presentation that highlighted the key learnings and accomplishments, as well as a discussion of program, community and system level outcomes.