Equitable Food Initiative, the workforce development and certification organization that partners with growers, farmworkers, retailers and consumer advocacy groups, is celebrating National Farmworker Awareness Week by encouraging everyone in the agricultural supply chain, government entities and consumers to share messages of appreciation for farmworkers. EFI has provided industry resources for the past several years to help bring attention to the people who work hard to ensure Americans have access to fresh, nutritious food every day.
The week is a call to action for communities to help raise awareness of the more than 2.5 million essential workers that plant, raise, grow, handle, harvest, pack and ship the food we consume. It emphasizes the important and #AlwaysEssential contributions they make to the food supply chain. This week is observed from March 25 to 31 and those working in agriculture can participate by sharing the key messages and graphics provided in EFI’s free communications toolkit.
The pandemic, followed by ongoing supply chain shortages and increasing food prices, continues to shine a light on the realities of the food supply chain, including agriculture’s front-line workers.
Farmworker Awareness Week is a call to action for communities to help raise awareness of the more than 2.5 million essential workers that plant, raise, grow, handle, harvest, pack and ship the food we consume.
EFI is encouraging agricultural industry members and consumers to amplify the message that farmworkers are #AlwaysEssential by:
- Sharing the communications toolkit/information across the agricultural industry.
- Creating unique content or videos for social media highlighting the week and using the #AlwaysEssential and #FarmworkerAwareness hashtags.
- Providing “live” content for social media channels featuring farmworker interviews that detail their jobs, safety precautions they take and the skills and knowledge they bring to their work.
- Asking political officials to draft a proclamation supporting National Farmworker Awareness Week.
- Hosting events celebrating farmworkers.
- Contacting local media and asking them to share information about the role of agriculture and farmworkers in local economies.
- Providing thank-you messages to farmworkers everywhere.
Food industry members promote National Farmworker Awareness Week by accessing the communications toolkit, which includes graphics, logos, hashtags and messages. Participants can create graphics from the customizable templates, as well as promote their organization, business or industry and tell their story. The kit also includes a new coloring page for children that serves as a thank-you note to farmworkers.
“Farm work has always been difficult, but today’s realities of chronic labor shortages, extreme weather events, skyrocketing costs and inflation provide even more reasons to celebrate the people working on the front lines providing fresh food,” said LeAnne Ruzzamenti, director of marketing communications, EFI. “The people of agriculture and the food industry work tirelessly to improve the safety and quality of our food systems.”
Mango packhouse Alpine Fresh.
For more information:
LeAnne R. Ruzzamenti
Equitable Food Initiative
Tel: +1 (202) 524-0540
leanne@equitablefood.org
www.equitablefood.org/
https://equitablefood.org/NFAW/