Stemilt highlights EFI team projects during Farmworker Awareness Week  

Wenatchee, Wash.-based Stemilt Growers is celebrating Farmworker Awareness Week by sharing the key role farmworkers play in its success.

Stemilt is drawing attention to continuous improvement projects led by Equitable Food Initiative leadership teams that improve safety and work experience for workers in the field and packing operations, according to a news release. 

“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,” Stemilt President West Mathison said in the release. “They take extreme care of our fruit from tree to truck and play a critical part in making fruit world famous at Stemilt.” 

Over 10 EFI leadership teams exist to continuously seek out small improvement projects across Stemilt’s orchards and facilities, according to the release. For example, this year the various 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.  

“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 towards a bigger change at Stemilt,” Mathison said in the release. “Our Stemilters are the backbone of our success and help make our mission of cultivating people and delighting consumers through excellence a reality.” 

To spread awareness during Farmworker Awareness Week, Stemilt is using social media to highlight recent EFI team-led projects that have been implemented in its packing facilities, the release said. The social posts include Instagram reels featuring EFI team members sharing their team’s completed projects and their stories of being long-time employees.

“EFI has helped Stemilt achieve larger change by making small changes to its processes every day,” Mathison said in the release. “It aligns with our desire to cultivate people through training and development to create communicative, problem solving and cross-functional leadership teams.”  

Since its certification, Stemilt has met over 300 of the industry’s highest standards around responsible labor practices, food safety, and pest management, the release said. 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 that incorporates worker voice, according to the release. 

“Historically, agriculture has had a transactional relationship with labor,” Mathison said in the release. “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.”