About Us

The Just.Safe.Food (J.S.F.) food handler training  program was created by a board of former and current restaurant industry workers that form the Food Service Worker Cooperative (FSW-COOP). These individuals have undergone food safety training requirements and courses themselves to understand and recognize the need for accessible forms of food safety training programs in the State of California. 

In creating the J.S.F. training, the FSW-COOP shareholders collected responses from restaurateurs to verify the need for additional training programs and for the addition of a module on workers’ safety. 

After identifying the need for an additional food safety training platform and for the addition of a workers’ rights module, a literature review was conducted which includes research from:

  • The Center for Disease Control (CDC) to identify the need for food safety training (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2018)

  • U.S. Food and Drug Administration Food Code to ensure the developed curriculum covers all facets of food safety necessitated by government agencies (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2017)

  • The Bureau of Labor Statistics to ensure the specific need for a food safety training program for California food service workers and to identify the target audience for the J.S.F. training (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2022)

  • The Pew Research Center to identify the lack of paid sick leave protection for workers in the United States and to thus better address the need to protect worker rights among the target audience identified (DeSilver, 2020)

  • Reports from Vox and Eater that use workers’ testimonials to establish an association between worker and food safety, particularly caused by the lack of sick leave and fear of retaliation (Del Valle, 2020; Saxena, 2020

Curriculum Development team:

Maricela Gutierrez, Just.Safe.Food Project Manager 

Mikey Knab, Just.Safe.Food. Advisor

Rebecca Grinberg, Environmental Occupational Health Intern – One Fair Wage/ UCLA LOSH, Curriculum reviewer and advisor. 

Training Audio and Video Creators:

        Greg Beachum, Fresh Tech, LLC

 

Project Support team:

Stevie Schafenacker, Project Co-Manager, Start-Up support 

Abena Anim-Somuah, Project Co-Manager, Start-Up support 

Katherine Paseman, Project Co-Manager, Start-Up support