WENATCHEE, WA - We may be closing out this year’s Farmworker Awareness Week, but the celebration isn’t over yet! Stemilt joined in on the occasion, highlighting the continuous improvement projects led by Equitable Food Initiative (EFI) leadership teams that improve safety and the work experience for Stemilters across its field and packing operations.
“One hundred percent of our success is driven by the resiliency and focus of our Stemilters both in the orchards and in our packaging and distribution facilities,” says Stemilt President West Mathison. “They take extreme care of our fruit from tree to truck and play a critical part in making fruit world famous at Stemilt.”
According to a press release, over 10 EFI leadership teams exist to seek out small improvement projects across Stemilt’s orchards and facilities. Just this year, the teams added fans to bagging areas on the packing line, created a map of emergency exits, placed cones in the parking lots to guide trucks and cars, and painted designated crosswalk areas for pedestrians in forklift and loading areas.
As it looks to spread awareness during Farmworker Awareness Week, the provider is harnessing social media to highlight recent EFI Team-led projects that have been implemented at its packing facilities. These posts include Instagram Reels featuring EFI team members sharing their team’s completed projects and their stories being long-time Stemilters.
“We’re looking back on our first 18 months of being fully certified with EFI this Farmworker’s Awareness Week to see how we’re progressing toward a bigger change at Stemilt,” says Mathison. “Our Stemilters are the backbone of our success and help make our mission of cultivating people and delighting consumers through excellence a reality.”
Stemilt has met over 300 of the industry’s top standards around responsible labor practices, food safety, and pest management since its certification.
“EFI has helped Stemilt achieve larger change by making small changes to its processes every day,” adds Mathison. “It aligns with our desire to cultivate people through training and development to create communicative, problem-solving, and cross-functional leadership teams.”
As the company explained in the release, EFI’s goal is to transform agriculture and improve the lives of farmworkers by building a culture of continuous improvement and a collaborative team environment.
“Historically, agriculture has had a transactional relationship with labor,” says Mathison. “EFI transforms the hierarchy of management into a system of aligned teams at all levels of the business, from the front lines to the Executive leadership. This certification helps bring authenticity to our working environments and encourages Stemilters to embrace conflict and find resolutions.”
Cheers to another successful celebration of our beloved farmworkers!
