Empowering Neurodivergent Individuals in the Fresh Produce Industry through Accessible Food Safety Outreach and Training

The long-term goal of this Collaborative Education and Training Project is to establish an inclusive and sustainable framework for food safety training and support that effectively integrates neurodiverse individuals into the food industry work­force, fostering their professional growth and contributing to the overall success of agricultural enterprises while promoting diversity and equity in the industry. The first step to achieving our goal is through the inclusive design of food safety training for workers within agricultural production environments growing and handling raw agricultural commodities (RACs) covered by the FSMA Produce Rule to meet the unique learning requirements of neuro­divergent (NDV) learners who compromise 15-20% of the U.S. population. To be successful, training of co-workers and supervisors of NDV persons will be critical to providing effective sup­port of NDV per­sons employed within the food industry. This will be implemented primarily through multime­dia learning tools that address the learning accommodations required for low to higher support NDV individuals. Importantly, this multimedia training approach is proven to aid in better un­derstanding of concepts and adoption of behavior change and has demonstrated effective­ness within our primary population. Our target audience includes NDV persons seeking mean­ingful employment within the food industry and their future co-workers and supervisors. The primary objectives to achieve our long-term goal are:Define specific learning needs of NDV individuals for effective food safety training.Determine the most effective learning media and approaches for NDV individuals.Develop training for co-workers and supervisors to effectively support NDV individuals.Create tailored food safety training modules for NDV learners.