Since its inception, EFI has celebrated Farmworker Awareness Week, held during the last week in March to honor and recognize farmworkers. The week aims to shine a much-needed light on the often-invisible work they contribute to the food supply chain.
In 2019, we began calling on agricultural companies to join us in this celebration. We created a Communications Toolkit to encourage the entire industry to spotlight the skills and contributions of farmworkers. With each passing year, I have watched with joy as the number of participating companies has grown, as more states issued proclamations, and as more workers were featured as key contributors to the healthy and nutritious food that graces our tables. This year was no different; as I scrolled through LinkedIn, I was moved by the flood of posts, videos and resources celebrating the people who feed us.
Shining a light on these skills is fundamental to EFI’s mission. Recently, we’ve bolstered these efforts with the introduction of the Farmworker of the Year award in 2024 and by featuring farmworker stories several times a month in our #FarmworkerFriday posts.
But as we’ve expanded this message to direct more industry and consumer attention to these critical roles, a realization hit home: farmworkers care for our food 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. They are there from the moment a seed is fostered to the moment it becomes a plant. They are relocating starts to the field, installing irrigation lines, pruning trees, and meticulously caring for the beneficial insect habitats required for integrated pest management. They are cleaning rows, harvesting, packing, processing and shipping the products that end up on our tables.
When you multiply those efforts across the dairy, meat, and poultry supply chains, we have millions of workers across the Americas working to feed those of us in the United States. We need more than a single week in March to honor efforts that are so often rendered invisible and are often treated as “substandard” despite providing the highly skilled labor vital to keeping food on our shelves (a lesson we learned so quickly during the pandemic but then seemed to forget just as quickly).
Introducing Behind Every Bite
That is why I am so proud to introduce our newest initiative: Behind Every Bite. This campaign is born from the belief that the recognition of farmworkers shouldn’t be a seasonal event, but a standard practice. One of our core philosophies at EFI is that the best work happens when we build it together. Because of that, we are choosing to introduce Behind Every Bite today, not as a finished, polished project, but as an invitation for participation. We want to build this initiative with all representatives of the supply chain, ensuring it is shaped by the very people it aims to celebrate and the organizations it aims to engage.
Join the Movement
We are calling for partners who believe, as we do, that transparency, engagement and gratitude are the best ingredients in creating an efficient supply chain that is future-proofed against labor, climate, technology and economic challenges. A key objective of this campaign is to bridge the gap between the kitchen table and the field by connecting consumers with farmworker groups and initiatives in their own communities. To make that possible, we are building a comprehensive catalog of the many organizations doing this vital work. We want to ensure that when a consumer asks, “How can I help?”, we have a clear answer ready for them.
- Farmworker Organizations: We want to help people find you. Please fill out our form (en español) to be included on the Behind Every Bite website.
- Suppliers and Retailers: We invite you to join us in seasonal engagements and campaigns to help amplify this message to your customers. Reach out via our Contact Us form to let us know you’re interested in participating.
A Seat at the Table
Every time we sit down to a meal, we are the beneficiaries of a massive, coordinated effort of human skill and dedication. My hope is that Behind Every Bite becomes more than just a campaign, because it is time for a large shift in perspective. Many companies are aware of the tremendous opportunity that can be unlocked when workers are treated well, trusted to do their best and engaged in their work, but many more are not. Let’s stop looking past the hands that feed us and start giving them the respect, gratitude and opportunities they have earned.
Every bite we take has many skilled people behind it, and it’s time we recognize, honor and unlock the potential in each one.
Written by LeAnne Ruzzamenti, Director of Marketing & Communications, Equitable Food Initiative