Browsing Tag

International Women’s Day

Featured, Kitchen

Culinary Prowess

March 8, 2024

Women’s History Month, Women’s Day and a Woman’s Work

It’s in the best interest of the industry to prioritize the meaningful inclusion of women in all facets of our business, especially positions of power and decision-making. The rich and intricate knowledge held by women remains an underutilized resource and, in a world, where resources are becoming increasingly scarce, neglecting this valuable asset, appears to me, a form of maleficence.

We grow and sell food and it’s a fact that women know more about food than men.  From farm to fork, orchard to table, we all benefit instantly from the inclusion of women. I want to focus on one specific, personally significant space in which women’s knowledge and real life experience is often overlooked in our business —women’s culinary prowess. The culinary expertise of women is a rich treasure trove, directly influencing and contributing significantly to the overall chain’s profitability and sustainability. This impact extends all the way to consumers, ensuring they experience  ultimate value, top-notch quality, and an optimal level of excitement – or, in the language of mango enthusiasts, #mangojoy.

Patriarchal placement put women in the kitchen and it has also unequivocally ignored the incredible insight and wisdom they gained from being put there. In our business of growing food and selling food it seems so ludicrous that women still have to fight for inclusion in particular in this light.

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Featured, People

“Our Stories”

March 8, 2023

El Grupo Crespo/RCF’s Unstoppable Women

I shared my thoughts on this International Women’s Day in another post: Where Is the Spine of International Women’s “Day”? Building Bridges: Diversity & Inclusion.

 In that post I call on my fellow industry peers to welcome more diversity and inclusion on their teams, to their marketing streams, and beyond. Women and other underrepresented groups come with differing perspectives, education, skill sets, expertise, and training that should be celebrated. If we are willing to openly and honestly assess where we are at today, we can take the steps necessary to create a fairer world.

I asked those with a vehicle for sharing information in our industry to welcome more diverse voices, role models, and unstoppable leaders. Diversify who you interview, feature, and talk about. Cover topics of diverse value. Increase awareness. If we market underrepresented voices in our industry, we can help accelerate equity. But we have to support them directly, too!

Below is my contribution to the effort, celebrating a few of El Grupo Crespo/RCF’s Unstoppable Women’s voices!

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Culture, Featured, News, Secrets & Lies

Where Is the Spine in International Women’s “Day”?

March 7, 2023

Building bridges: diversity & inclusion

 It’s a weird day, this International Woman’s Day thing.  It feels important but like we’ve made a very serious topic frivolous by placing it in a “day category”, next to International Ice Cream Day and International Siblings Day. My gut feeling is that this rather uncomfortable topic is placed here between ice cream and siblings because we don’t know what else to do with it. We still don’t know quite how to address real life disparity. 

Most search engine results will point browsers to one particular website: InternationalWomensDay.com. As far as I can tell, the site’s origins are untraceable entities except for the fact that John Deer seems to be a sponsor (which feels peculiar and suspicious to me, I won’t lie).

The theme on this site is #EmbraceEquity. Despite this year’s incredibly cheesy (and if you ask me a little too soft for the subject matter) self-hug photographic rendition of the theme, the site manages to capture the most important aspects of equality: diversity and inclusion… “to get the world talking about why equal opportunities aren’t enough.” Citing that: “People start from different places, so true inclusion and belonging require equitable action.”

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Featured, People

Celebrating Courageous, Confident Women

March 8, 2022

Confident, courageous women #BreaktheBias

I have some OPINIONS about today, if you have interest- these are my opinions, keep that in mind!

International Women’s Day comes up every year and, like those other weird 24-hour holidays like Father’s Day or Mother’s Day whose concepts seem like they should stretch beyond a mere 24-hour day, it barely makes a mark on my world of produce. It hits the social media circuit and then runs off, much like the many promotions and recognition qualified women deserve yet don’t receive.

The day is said to honor women globally, “celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. Marking a call to action for accelerating gender parity.” (I highly recommend clicking HERE and reading the definition of parity.) It seems like a particularly awesome concept that one would think our industry would jump on more. Yet, my inbox with the token produce newsletters was void of anything women-centric, let alone a recognition of today, March 8th, International Women’s Day (with the exception of the Fresh Fruit Portal – kudos!).

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