Food systems don't work without workers. We can't build healthy, sustainable food systems without addressing issues of job quality and workforce development. Yet far too little research and policymaking focuses on the role of workers in food systems. We can change that. One strategy is to make research more "worker centered," but what might this look like? Dr. Gaddis and her team developed a framework drawing from the Good Jobs Collaborative's "Principles for a Worker-Centered Workforce Development System." They integrated this framework into the Understanding the School Food Workforce Project, a 3-year US Department of Agriculture cooperative agreement designed to:
- Increase understanding of the current state of the school food workforce and the structure of their jobs
- Increase understanding about how, if at all, recruitment, retention, and job satisfaction are impacted by schools and school food authority characteristics and employment structures
- Identify the most promising strategies for creating a stable and respected school food workforce equipped to provide fresh, healthy meals to students while supporting resilient local and regional food systems
Worker Centered Research.....
- Advances worker voice, power, organizing, and/or unionization;
- Values the needs, experiences, and perspectives of frontline workers;
- Emphasizes workers’ existing assets, skills, and capacities for growth;
- Looks for opportunities and potential (positive framing/asset-based approach) rather than only what is lacking or problematic;
- Understands that the structure of jobs and policies that surround jobs are an important site of intervention;
- May involve workers directly in the research process through consultation across the life of a research project or deeper engagement through participatory action research;
- Actively recognizes and engages with structural discrimination (e.g., race, sex, disability) within the labor market; and/or
- Informs the development of labor market policies, training, career pathways, and support services that enhance job quality.
Dr. Gaddis' Worker-Centered Research
For over a decade, Dr. Gaddis has partnered with school food workers on data collection, analysis, and storytelling projects that highlight the need to invest in community-based culinary capacity (i.e., the labor, skills, time, infrastructure, and equipment to prepare fresh, nutritious, appetizing meals from scratch) so that children can be nourished with "real food" at school. This body of work includes a book, participatory research with the Healthy School Meals for All Wisconsin Coalition, and an ongoing national study funded by the US Department of Agriculture.
