Ruzzamenti’s Good Role at EFI Fits Her Need to be a for Force
Transforming farmworker engagement and creating value for growers and buyers is the goal.
by ELLEN URIBE
S purred on by her mother, LeAnne Rhodes Ru- zzamenti always believed it was important to make her own way in the world, and that she was deserving of the time people invested in her. “I am the only daughter of an only daughter who is the daughter of an only daughter,” she says. “My mom always stressed to me that I was worthy, and I feel so much gratitude for the people that have mentored me.” As the director of marketing communications at the Equitable Food Initiative (EFI) - a food certification system founded in 2015 that aims to ensure safer food for consumers and improve working conditions for farm-
workers, among other objectives - Ruzzamenti is charged with raising awareness and helping to forge a favorable impression of EFI in the fresh produce industry. She says it was ‘kismet’ when she joined the organization in 2016. The organization was incubated as a project of Oxfam America, a non-profit, beginning in 2011, and it became an independent nonprofit in April 2015. “EFI is the perfect place for me. Although I knew it would be challenging, the job calls on all my experi- ence and skills. It allows me to utilize my creativity and resourcefulness. It really is the culmination of my career that I was waiting for, because I wanted to work at a mis-
56 Vision Magazine
December 2022
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