The New Jersey Food Council (NJFC) has been awarded a $250,800 grant from the state Department of Labor to train food retail workers in food safety, leadership, and computer skills.
The funding, administered through the Rutgers Office of Continuing Professional Education, will support training for employees of NJFC member companies, including supermarkets, convenience stores and grocers across the state. The grant is part of a broader effort to improve safety, compliance, and workforce development in the food retail sector.
“Our members are enormously grateful for the training of frontline workers who are beginning what we hope will become longtime careers as food retailers,” said Linda Doherty, president and CEO of the New Jersey Food Council. “This program allows us to expand food safety training across the state, with the goal of making New Jersey the national standard for how this mandated program should be administered.”
The grant will fund industry-recognized certification programs including ServSafe and SafeMark food safety training, as well as courses in supervisory skills, leadership development and essential computer software. These skills are increasingly critical as food retail operations adopt more technology and look to promote from within.
The NJFC said the training helps create career pathways for frontline employees and opens advancement opportunities from in-store roles to corporate positions.
This latest grant continues a long-running partnership between the NJFC and Rutgers OCPE that began in 2002. To date, the collaboration has secured more than $3.5 million in funding to train approximately 27,500 New Jersey workers.
The New Jersey Food Council represents more than 1,200 food retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers, and service providers employing over 200,000 people statewide.
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