EFI Celebrates Five Years of Workforce Development Support
Providing Compliance and Business Performance Improvements to the Fresh Produce Industry
It has been five years since the formal launch of Equitable Food Initiative, the workforce development and training organization that partners with growers, farmworkers, retailers and consumer advocacy groups to improve both compliance and business performance. EFI was first conceived in 2008, was incubated within Oxfam America during a development phase and incorporated as an independent nonprofit in 2015. It has since trained leadership teams on nearly 60 farming operations in North and Central America, improving working conditions for more than 36,000 farmworkers. Participating retailers have so far paid more than $8.5 million in worker bonuses through premiums generated on EFI-certified products.
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As the world weathers a global health pandemic and essential workers emerge as true frontline heroes, the role for organizations like EFI becomes more clear. Applying lean management strategies in the fresh produce industry provides farming operations with the tools to solve complex issues, from meeting customer requirements to reorganizing work processes. During the coronavirus outbreak, farms with EFI-trained teams were able to quickly respond to emerging recommendations.
“I have often remarked how thankful I am for the EFI workforce development model and the importance of worker-manager teams, but that has never been more evident than during this crisis,” said Vic Smith, CEO of JV Smith Companies. “Because of EFI, we were able to ensure communication easily flowed to more than 2,500 workers. EFI is the right partner in times both of crisis and normalcy.”
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