As consumers are becoming more and more interested in not only where their food comes from but who the people are behind their food procurement, one company is helping propel the stories of farm workers in produce.
Thx! is a social impact program helping farm workers achieve their dreams. It began five years ago where labels on packages of blueberries, cherries, pears and lemons featured photos of real farm workers with a QR code next to their pictures. Via that code, consumers could watch a one-minute video of a farm worker talking about where they work and what they do. “Each worker also has a dream that is related to a need they have. The brand is called Thx! because they are thanking the consumer for buying the product because it’s helping them,” says Martin Casanova of Thx!.
The dreams fall into one of three categories: education, micro entrepreneurship and home improvements. “It helps farm workers level up socially,” he says, noting the dreams may include anything from supporting their small side business of selling cakes to neighbors to receiving support for English language learning as part of their education to adding on another bathroom so the worker won’t have to share one bathroom anymore with 10 other family members anymore.
Focusing on farm workers
Consumers love the concept says Casanova and find the label easy to connect with. “While many retailers promote farmers, which is great, this focus is on farm workers,” he says. A survey earlier this year of 300 consumers confirmed that inkling with more than 70 percent of respondents saying they would choose the brand once they fully saw what it was all about.
However, the program is not without its hurdles. “When you are doing something so different, there are challenges because people aren’t looking for it. It’s something totally new,” says Casanova.
So while convincing retailers of this concept is one hurdle, another is the portrayal of farm workers. “Companies wondered: how can you get that emotional connection with consumers without giving the impression that farm workers are poor people and that growers aren’t paying fair wages and not covering their needs?” After all, as Casanova explains, the companies it works with try to help farm workers as much as possible. “The big problem is that it’s seasonal work. Farm workers likely live in small towns and do this work a few months a year. It’s not stable work.” In turn, this has meant carefully editing videos to not give consumers the impression that farm workers are poor.
Meanwhile, the program is developing and most recently Thx! switched from being strictly a brand to being a program. “Since the beginning, we’ve had growers and companies who like the concept and asked if we were willing to let them use our concept but we didn’t have a solution for that,” he says. After a test run of the program model in Argentina proved successful, at last fall’s IFPA show it launched the program format. “This way it can help more farm workers and we can go beyond what we can sell. We are partnering with companies who want to have something to help their brands have a connection with consumers or are looking for a sustainability program to help employees,” says Casanova.
Non-profit addition
Three months ago, it also launched Seeding Futures, the non-profit aspect of the program. “We got emails from consumers wanting to help make the dream happen or companies wanting to help by donating money but we didn’t have anything to offer, as all the dreams are paid by our profit or fees,” he says.
So Seeding Futures was created. It's an open program helping farm workers and their families in everything related to education. “We partnered with a very well-regarded online educational institution and we provide free online classes to farm workers and their families,” says Casanova, noting these could be English and computer lessons, help for kids with homework and other school-support initiatives. “We also offer scholarships to farm workers to finish their studies and help them with hardware and supplies.”
He notes that it’s not required to do business with Thx! to take advantage of Seeding Futures. “Any grower can give this benefit to their workers. Seeding Futures is sponsored by Thx! and by consumers and anyone from our industry who wants to make a donation to the program,” he says.
In all, these developments will allow Thx! to help more farm workers. To date, the program has helped 200-250 farm workers, though, with the switch from a brand to a program, Casanova estimates it will help another 500 workers this year alone. When Thx! began, it was imagined that 1,000 farm workers will be helped and Casanova is confident that that number will grow in the next two to three years.
For more information:
Martin Casanova
Thx!
Tel: +1 (754) 200-5755
martin@thxdreams.com
www.thxdreams.com