Walmart grant helps make improving labor practices easier
The Walmart Foundation is giving a two-year, $2 million grant to help companies better implement the principles in the Ethical Charter on Responsible Labor Practices.
This charter is a joint project by Equitable Food Initiative, called EFI in the produce industry, and The Sustainability Consortium, according to a news release.
EFI is a nonprofit workforce development and certification organization that partners with growers, farmworkers, retailers and consumer groups to increase transparency in the food supply chain and improve the lives of farmworkers through a team-based approach to training and continuous improvement practices.
The consortium is a global nonprofit organization of members and partners — including manufacturers, retailers, suppliers, service providers, NGOs, civil society organizations, governmental agencies and academics — that collaborate to build science-based decision tools and solutions that address sustainability issues that are materially important throughout a product’s supply chain and lifecycle.
Related: Walmart launches four pollinator habitat guides for farmers, ranchers
“[Our] mission is to make all products sustainable,” consortium CEO Christy Slay said in the release. “This begins with helping growers achieve more responsible labor practices through science-based assessments so that they can demonstrate improvement within the industry.”
Walmart Foundation’s grant will help EFI and the consortium further the goal of helping growers and suppliers strengthen the management systems they need to uphold the principles of the Ethical Charter.
Since the launch of the Ethical Charter, EFI has worked with a group of retailers and foodservice operators, including Kroger and McDonald’s USA, as well as suppliers and other partners to support field-level application of charter principles.
The grant builds on a successful pilot program from 2019 to 2021 with four buyers, 20 suppliers and 40 growers that tested the use of a self-assessment questionnaire and supporting resources to help growers identify and improve the management systems they need to support robust labor practices.
This grant funds the next stage of work with the creation of the Ethical Charter Implementation Program to further improve and expand this approach, allowing more growers, their suppliers and buyers to engage around continuous improvement on working conditions. An initial cohort of suppliers and their growers will be invited to engage in the program in early 2023, and over time it will become available to any grower supplying fresh produce to the North American market.
Related: Walmart's Mack urges connection with consumers
A joint committee made up of suppliers and buyers from the Produce Marketing Association and the United Fresh Produce Association led industry dialogue and invited public comment to craft the Ethical Charter. The charter was adopted in July 2018 and offers an industry framework for accountability and transparency related to respect for laws at work, respect for professional conduct and respect for human rights. Since then, more than 500 industry organizations have endorsed the Ethical Charter.
“Since the Ethical Charter was launched, EFI has worked with buyers and growers to develop scalable, supplier-owned strategies to build the capacity of employers to strengthen their policies and procedures regarding management of their workforce,” EFI executive director Peter O’Driscoll said in the release. “Rather than an audit-based approach to compliance, this program will focus on self-assessment, capacity-building and measurement of continuous improvement as the most effective ways to advance responsible labor practices at scale.”
The Walmart Foundation grant supports further development of the grower self-assessment questionnaire and capacity-building resources, along with data systems for reporting. EFI’s collaboration with TSC will allow suppliers to share aggregated updates on grower and supplier continuous improvement through TSC’s The Sustainability Insight System platform.
Related news: Equitable Food Initiative certification receives GFSI recognition
“The Ethical Charter sets out guiding principles around responsible labor practices that seek to strengthen the dignity of agricultural workers and improve practices in global supply chains,” Walmart.org program officer Gavin Bailey said in the release. “The Walmart Foundation is pleased to fund the next iteration of this work aimed at supporting the industry to implement the Ethical Charter, unlock the full potential of the initiative and strengthen protections for agricultural workers.”
This grant is an opportunity to improve the lives of the essential workers on whom the produce industry depends, Driscoll said in the release.
“We will work with other produce leaders to co-create resources that support the continuous improvement of labor practices, and that ultimately benefits the entire produce industry,” he said.
