To be honest, I haven't really been exposed to a well thought out needs assessment yet in my experience. Most of the programs I've been involved with so far started more from immediate requests or available resources rather than a formal assessment process. Reading your question makes me realize that's something I need to learn more about — I can see how taking the time to assess needs properly would help a program succeed from the start. I'm looking forward to seeing what others share so I can get a better sense of what a strong needs assessment looks and feels like in practice.

The closest thing I have done/been involved with has been sharing a survey (50+ responses) to assess deer management concerns in Chemung County. The results of the survey inspired additional efforts beyond the initial community prompt (deer damage), including developing a community deer management CCE Chemung page, deer related workshops, homesteading workshop presentations on deer conflicts and other deer ecology related discussions in the state and community.

In graduate school I was involved with a multi-state participatory organic vegetable breeding project that was in it's third round of 4-year funding cycle, so had several iterations to improve needs assessments. Organic vegetable farmers contributed feedback via an annual organic seed conference and associated surveying, and plant breeders also contributed feedback, which was an effective combination as these were the two main stakeholder groups with on the ground knowledge of what gaps existed in availability of varieties that were suited to the farming community. This process informed both the crops that were worked on as well as the breeding goals, which were implemented across multiple states that participated. It felt like the organizers put a lot of time and resources into the needs assessment, which wasn't always true for many big research grants I have worked on!

The only needs assessments I've seen are surveys in regional fruit articles (Tree Fruit News, for example), and then at the ENY Winter Conference in the Small Fruit track, a speaker and colleague asked growers questions following her published research in strawberries. She wanted to see where people were at and what they were doing in the field and how we could support. Other than that, I'm sure other needs assessments are being done, I probably am not privy to it.

The best example of a well thought out needs assessment I can think of is a resource survey done by our Rescued EATS program. The program is an effort to rescue excess or otherwise undesirable produce and divert it to pantries or food processing centers for distribution to folks in need. We started a roundtable of multiple partners from agriculture, food processing, and emergency food, and tried to determine what was available in the community and what was needed. This included things like fridge space and commercial kitchens for potential use.
It helped us prioritize who to reach out to when large quantities of donated produce were available for processing to extend their lifespan and keep them usable.

Effective needs assessments depend on aligning methods with the setting where data is collected. In large-format contexts, such as well‑attended regional events, distributing surveys can be an efficient way to gather a high volume of responses. When entering a new role, it is also valuable to learn from your team about which topics and themes have historically been well attended and frequently addressed, helping to avoid duplication and identify gaps. Another effective needs assessment strategy is reaching out to collaborating organizations that can support and promote your programs, as they have direct access to communities with identified needs.

I admit that I don't think I've been involved in a "well-thought out" needs assessment. The closest I've come to this has been discussions with my regional team's advisory board. Asking the public, "how are we doing? What should we be doing?" can be nerve-wracking and can lead to feeling defensive ("but I thought I WAS doing that?"), but it's extra helpful to have a follow-up session with your teammates to digest what's been said and how to address the needs that were discussed.

We do an Annual Needs Assessment every year, which is sent to every Highway/DPW official in New York State. The survey topic is discussed with our advisory panel, in the past we have covered topics on:

Our Association's strategic planning process joined staff, Board and community members into 6 curated groups, who answered aspirational questions about our organization's priority and future. The groups were operational and programmatic. a skilled external facilitator with whom I had been working closely, and who had helped me to deliver key outcomes, was key to the success.

As opposed to the 20+ page strategic planning documents I usually see (which no one can remember by the following week), the outcome will be an accessible one-pager that addresses community and internal needs, and guides future work.

I am apart of a national biochar project and recently a project collaborator, American Farmland Trust, led a national survey to better understand biochar production and adoption on farm across the US. I thought it was a very good assessment of the needs to the producers. While it only captured responses from just over 400 individuals, it was quite representative of the agriculture industry. They shared the survey with partners to disseminate widely, used social media, newsletters, word of mouth, webinars, and other tools to broadcast the survey as widely as possible.
I think it often takes a team to really conduct a successful needs assessment. People have different connections, outlets, and are aware of different things. I think a successful needs assessment cannot be done alone.

I have limited experience with needs assessments. Last year I started looking at the zip cods within which we have been providing 4-H programming (clubs, Ag. in The Classroom, library programming, etc.). My plan was to the look at the zip codes that we were not serving and assess their needs for programming. This came at the same time as some shift in staffing. I am looking forward to working more with needs assessment as part of my project.

Dept. of Health funded programs I've been involved with have required fairly comprehensive needs assessment processes, and provided or recommended associated tools. These programs required a needs assessment, largely based on local data such as the county's Community Health Assessment, as part of the RFA process. Once funding was awarded, a first step was to administer a readiness assessment for partner organizations and an environmental scan of relevant community assets and gaps (these projects used a policy, systems, and environmental change approach so the tools/processes were not focused on individual participant experiences). However, what may have been lacking was a requirement/encouragement to formally interview or hold focus groups with partner representatives; sometimes, it felt like that opportunity for relationship building was missing from this (formal) process.
This assessment process helped to set the stage and provided back-up for next steps.

The most formal needs assessment I can think of facilitating is a School Wellness agreement which had about 10 different types of service we could offer, and schools typically selecting all of the above. Often it is a planned meeting, where we talk about what the staff want, what they needs to offer to use grant funds, and what they think the students should receive. Rarely are the students involved in this process. I appreciate one school district at one point when they hosted routine Wellness meetings where students were invited and spoke on behalf of students' needs, while the staff spoke on behalf of the staffs needs. I wish more schools operated in this way. If I was still involved in school specific wellness efforts, I would continue encouraging this design.

Most of the needs assessments have come from listening to agricultural producers on field visits, responding to office inquiries, and attending Ag programing committees, County Economic Development Committees, and the county SWCD and NRCS meetings. Being new to the area, it has been extreamly valuable to listen to the wide variety of opinions that come from people involved in agriculture in Northern New York to learn about the challenges they are facing.

In my old job with the Blackfeet Nation tribal gov, working on the Agriculture Development Plan, there was a really well executed community needs assessment. The Blackfeet Tribal Gov partnerned with local Blackfeet Led nonprofits to conduct a needs asessment survey. The survyed ranchers, farmers, general public, food system programs,and other stake holders. They also hosted lisening session around specific topics, for example the fesability of a meat processing plant. They also hired consultants to do market research that was presetned to the public for feed back and decison making. I liked how it was really drivien by public comment all the way through.

The most recent needs assessment that I have been involved with that seems to be *mostly* well thought out is the NYS 4-H Strategic planning that has been occurring over the last year. They have collected information from many groups… educators, youth, stakeholders, and more to better understand the future of 4-H and the changes that may need to occur. This came in the form of large and small group conversations, surveys, and additional dialog. I can’t say how it has helped the program to succeed because we are still in the middle of this process, but I am looking forward to the fruits of this labor.

The majority of my direct experience in facilitating needs assessments have occurred in my public health graduate program. This looked different depending on what the scope of the initiative was, but overall, the most important factors that influenced success were trust, transparent and open dialogue to clearly explain expectations, and direct input from all the relevant partners, whether that is other organizations and/or folks directly from the impacted community. I think in order to approach a needs assessment successfully, it is important to go in having done research on how to ensure your methods are accessible and relevant. It is equally as important to understand your own potential biases and limitations and how/where they will show up, as well as ensuring that you have an appropriate team and tools and are prepared to be flexible and adaptable based on what the community expresses, regardless of how much or little it aligns with your preconceived notions of the needs.

I've had to assist in assessing needs of our Fruit and Vegetable Prescription (FVRx) program. For any of our programs, we usually begin where there is high SNAP-eligibility. We can find this through historical program locations or using the USDA's FNS Capacity Builder GIS tool. Once potential locations are established, I researched:
1) potential medical partners (hospitals, private practices, senior centers with medical staff, etc.) willing to screen for food insecurity
2) potential retail locations where participants can exchange their vouchers for fresh produce
3) grant funding availability in the region to fund vouchers.

It was a great process to witness and participate in. It taught me a lot about the power of partnerships and collaboration. Unfortunately, with the enormous input and time spent on creating this program, it also made me feel uncertain of the sustainability of this model.

While I have not headed a needs assessment, I have been apart of efforts to address issues that arose from data within my county. I think a lot of my understanding of what needs the community may have has come from other educators ears or current projects (for instance our Ag Educator input into GIS where food resources like farm stands vs grocery stores were in the county, lending itself as a nice resource for food pantries or nutrition educators to hone programming in those areas); what the community or local government is asking for either through phone calls in (like getting water testing into our office or our input on walkability and bikeability in the city our office's homebase city).

During my undergraduate studies, I was involved with a student-run campus pantry, and that experience gave me a strong example of what a well thought out needs assessment can look like in practice. At the time, especially during COVID, food insecurity among students became more visible, but there was limited support from campus dining. Rather than immediately trying to build a solution on our own, we first focused on understanding the need more fully. This included speaking with students about access barriers, identifying gaps in existing campus resources, and connecting with external organizations and local food pantries to learn what models had been successful and sustainable.
What stood out to me was how collaborative and iterative the process felt. We weren’t just guessing at solutions, we were actively listening, gathering input, and adjusting based on what we learned. There were many stakeholders involved, including students from diverse backgrounds, local pantry organizations, campus groups, and volunteers. Through those connections, we were able to identify practical opportunities, such as recovering excess food from dining services and increasing access to non-perishable items through pop-up pantry locations.
I was also involved with the student farm at the time, which created an opportunity to connect fresh produce directly to the pantry. This helped expand the type of food available and made the program feel more holistic. Additionally, support from volunteers who donated refrigerators, space, and time played a key role in making the program functional and accessible. It made the program more effective because it was built with input from the community it was serving, and it created a strong network of support that contributed to its success and sustainability.