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\\u201cWe realize that they are the ones with the skills. They have been working for a long time, for some of them even decades, and so we just try to create a space for people to shine.\\u201d\\xa0

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Alice Linsmeier (16:45-17:02)

The Equitable Food Initiative is on a mission to bring together growers, farmworkers, retailers and consumers to transform agriculture and improve the lives of farm workers. It wouldn\\u2019t be a celebration of Farm Workers Awareness Week without sharing the great impact the EFI creates for all individuals in the produce supply chain.

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Tony Pacheco, foreign worker and Health and Safety Manager at Winset Farms\\u2019 Delta Branch in British Columbia, Canada is their co-chair of EFI and never has a typical day-to-day experience. With about 196 workers from Guatemala and around 150-200 local workers during peak time, every day has a different set of challenges, especially when workers (and EFI reps) speak three separate languages. Whether he\\u2019s talking to a Spanish speaking, Punjabi speaking, or English speaking worker, Tony tries to connect with each worker when walking around making sure everyone is working safely. It\\u2019s imperative to keep the lines of communication open with these workers to take care of issues, for example, in their housing or with how they are working.

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\\u201cEverybody has been empowered by the EFI program. It\'s really cool to see our meetings because I present them in English and Spanish, and then we have a Punjabi translator. Our meetings are updating in three languages and all of our posters are in three languages.\\u201d Tony Pacheco (9:33-9:49)

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EFI is a training program that anyone in the produce supply chain can take and be certified by. If you\\u2019re like Maria Goreti Mireles Gonzalez, Human Resources Coordinator at Andrew & Williamson, you\\u2019re talking to workers about the EFI program from the time they sign on as an employee. Not only that, workers around the farm are always talking about how they\\u2019ve grown through EFI, what they\\u2019ve learned or asking questions, so everyone is well aware of the impact that\\u2019s available to them.\\xa0

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That doesn\\u2019t mean workers are eager to go through the training, however. Many workers are shy, don\\u2019t like to speak in front of people or think it\\u2019s just going to be a boring PowerPoint presentation. Tony Pacheco says, \\u201cwe have workers that didn\'t want to be part of it and we encourage them to do it, even though they said they were very shy and they couldn\'t speak in front of people. After about six months of being on the program the turnaround was just amazing and their confidence level went up.\\u201d\\xa0

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Thanks to that confidence boost, some of the workers at Winset Farms have become forklift operators, which many were intimidated by at first because they\\u2019re used to working with their hands and don\\u2019t have as much of the same technology in Guatemala, where they\\u2019re originally from. When workers arrive, they\\u2019re introduced to electrical greenhouse cards, scissor lifts, the ability to log into computer systems to keep track of produce inventory, and the workers that went through the EFI course to become representatives are impacted greatly because their competency level is raised higher.

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\\u201cAfter the first day [of EFI training], the workers are laughing, people that are really shy are speaking, they\'re making sure everyone has a space to speak, and they are just supporting each other in bringing forth the best of their skills and gifts to keep each other safe, keep the product safe and keep the environment safe.\\u201d Alice Linsmeier (18:21-18:42)

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One of the main things EFI tries to do is create community and bring together all of the job functions of the farm, include women, include other languages, shine a light on the indigenous workers that are bilingual indigenous speaking and uplift in the vocabulary discussion. On farms like Winset, you\\u2019ll see workers from three different cultures coming together for potlucks, enjoying each others\\u2019 foods and learning about what each person\\u2019s unique background, no matter where they\\u2019re from, has to bring to the table. They also interview workers since they\\u2019re the ones working these incredibly hard jobs day-to-day and know first hand what needs to be changed or improved upon. That\\u2019s how EFI gets to the root causes and brainstorms solutions.

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EFI has also encouraged getting more feedback from the workers. They are the ones on the field and inside the greenhouse or packing areas, after all, so they started getting more feedback than before on what needs to be changed. Tony Pacheco says this was a huge eye-opener for him because, for one, he\\u2019s in the office all day and doesn\\u2019t see what goes on in the field, but also because the workers really paved the way for how they should be thinking about these problems and brainstorming solutions. It\\u2019s made implementing change much faster and efficient, plus there\\u2019s a level of trust now between the farm workers and the company that wasn\\u2019t as prevalent before.

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\\u201cIt is a treasure and I have great respect and the more I work here and I share with farm workers the greater my respect is for them because it\'s not only the physical work that they put in; It\'s their life behind what they do.\\u201d Maria Goreti Mireles Gonzalez (29:52-30:11)

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It\\u2019s important to remember as a consumer that products that are farm worker assured and have an EFI label are quite unique in that they\\u2019re going above and beyond to make sure everyone is safe and healthy, from their family to yours. To support the EFI when you\\u2019re shopping, look for a label that looks like a leaf and says \\u201csustainably grown farmworker assured\\u201d.\\xa0

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How to get involved

• Join The Produce Moms Group on Facebook and continue the discussion every week!\\xa0
• Reach out to us - we\\u2019d love to hear more about where you are in life and business! Find out more here.\\xa0

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If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a quick review on iTunes. It would mean the world to hear your feedback and we\\u2019d love for you to help us spread the word!