National Farmworker Awareness Week honors laborers

National Farmworker Awareness Week honors farmworkers that make having access to fresh, high-quality food every day of the year possible for Americans.

The week runs March 25-31. The week is a call to action for communities to help raise awareness of the millions of essential workers that plant, raise, grow, handle, harvest, pack and ship the food Americans consume, according to a news release from Equitable Food Initiative (EFI), the capacity-building and certification organization that partners with growers, farmworkers, retailers and consumer groups.

The week emphasizes the important and essential contributions farmworkers make to the food supply chain. This commemorative week is observed from.

“Those of us working in agriculture know the essential role that farmworkers play in bringing fresh, healthy food to supermarkets. But global supply chain challenges and increasing food inflation have left many Americans more curious about how and where their food comes from,” according to the release. “This is the perfect opportunity to tell the story of the millions of men and women who work in skilled labor positions to grow, harvest and pack our food. Let’s bring voice to Farmworker Awareness Week and spread the message of how essential farmworkers are the root of our supply chain and ensure the availability, quality and safety of our fresh food.”

The pandemic, followed by ongoing supply chain shortages and increasing food prices continues to shine a light on the realities of our food supply chain, including agriculture’s frontline workers. Consumers continue to take a real interest in where their food comes from and the workers who help bring that food from farm to table, according to the release.

There are more than 21 million agriculture and food-related jobs in the U.S. and 2.6 million of those jobs belong to farmworkers working daily on farms and ranches performing hard and skilled labor. Many of those work in the fresh produce industry and harvest most fresh fruits and vegetables that Americans eat by hand.

“Although supply chain challenges have wreaked havoc on every industry, the skilled men and women of the food industry, specifically farmworkers, have shown us their fortitude and ability to rise to the occasion every day and meet the needs of a hungry consumer,” according to the release. “The men and women of agriculture and the food industry take their work seriously and these farmworkers bring a level of skilled professionalism that is truly essential and should be valued and celebrated by every consumer.”

Read more about the week here.