The Charlie Cart Project
Organization
In 2015, Carolyn Federman (former director of Alice Waters’ Edible Schoolyard Project) founded The Charlie Cart Project (CCP) to give kids the knowledge and power to make healthy life choices. For almost 10 years, CCP has been shifting the food system from the ground up through its portable, accessible culinary education program. CCP has provided food education at over 500 sites (from schools to libraries, museums, and hospitals) with over 1500 educators in 47 states through an all-in-one-program. This program includes a kitchen on wheels and a full curriculum of classroom-tested recipes—connecting the dots between food, health, and the environment.
Issue
How can The Charlie Cart Project scale its impact by improving its quality of engagement with educators, thereby increasing the number of students who cook and consume more nutritious food?
Situation
The Charlie Cart Project (CCP) has worked with over 1500 educators over the last decade with approximately 1200 who are currently active and 200-300 new educators joining annually. Its website was the first marketing vehicle that the organization used to recruit educators, but most joined because of word-of-mouth testimonies. CCP recognizes an opportunity to retain more of the educators on its active roster and to expand the organization’s end-user impact. Since these educators are the primary conduit to influencing students to cook and consume nutritious meals, the CCP team strives to have a more engaged, loyal educator network to promulgate its mission. Overall, The Charlie Cart Project’s goal is to scale its reach through galvanizing its network of school professionals rather than only relying on growth from one cart sale at a time.
Project Overview
The Charlie Cart Project (CCP) requests the assistance of ACT in developing a community engagement strategic plan targeted toward its educators. CCP wants to understand best practices for building and retaining a loyal, active, and engaged educator network. CCP also seeks to learn about best practices for improving the effectiveness of their community educators, thereby improving the impact of educators on students. An assessment of CCP’s and similar organizations’ vehicles, forums, and messaging content strategies for community engagement would be the first step in developing the plan followed by implementation recommendations.
Other
This is a Full Team project:
- Scope: High-priority organizational challenge involving strategy or management
- Team Size: 4-5 consultants, including 1-2 project leaders
- Project Duration: 6 months
- Estimated time Contribution: Team member: 3-4 hrs/week, Project leader: 5-6 hrs/week
Read more about the Full Team Project Consultant role and the Project Leader role.