LATINO IMMIGRANT-OWNED FARMS TRAINING IN FOOD SAFETY (LIFT)

The goal of SHIFT is to strengthen the food safety compliance capacity of beginning and socially disadvantaged farm-owners, field laborers and future food safety professionals. Accounting for participant overlap, the project will serve 250 distinct beneficiaries, 90% being BSDFs. This will be achieved through the following three (3) objectives.1. 64 start-up farm owners gain knowledge and adopt Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) through intensive food safety training and technical assistance in ALBAs Organic Farm Incubator (OFI). These include the 40 start-up farms in business at the start of the program and the 24 additional farms that will be launched during the program. These farmers will receive the most intensive training and oversight by ALBA's food safety program staff.2. 76 regional farms strengthen their knowledge and capacity to comply with FSMA requirements through training and technical assistance. The Food Safety Manager will be ALBA's point person in providing assistance to off-site farms, while overseeing the Food Safety Assistant and other qualified staff to work with start-up farms at ALBA. Participants include a mix of ALBA alumni farms and other BSDFs in the region, which are referred by partners. The most intensive assistance will go to farms in need of a food safety plan on a new production site. Others will receive technical assistance by phone and zoom or in-person consultations relating to audit preparations, or simply take part in bi-lingual workshops.3. 125 Hartnell College students and field laborers develop knowledge and skills to address gaps in organic farm food safety labor and services. ALBA will continue training our Food Safety Team and program staff who work directly with farmers. Through our partnership with Hartnell College, students pursuing degrees in food safety and sustainable farm management will build knowledge in workshops, field days and internships. We will also take a new approach to training our farms by engaging their laborers in the classroom and field.The project will result in 140 farm owners and another 100 participants gaining knowledge on food safety, develop food safety plans on their land, and obtain or renew certification. In addition, ALBA's program staff will continue to develop assistance capacity through training and through working with partners on assessing the scope and magnitude of services needed.