The Quiet Impact: Meet Rita, the Volunteer Quietly Transforming Food Safety in Africa

What happens when deep expertise meets a genuine desire to make a difference?

For Rita Baeza, the QRC Audits Manager at The Hershey Company, the answer has taken shape through years of quiet, purposeful work, supporting food entrepreneurs across Africa through Partners in Food Solutions.

Based in North Carolina, Rita brings a career spanning nearly every corner of the food industry; bakery, fruits and juice, beverage, tortilla, and now confectionery, along with deep experience in process improvement, Six Sigma, new product development, and product line start-ups. Her credentials speak to the same commitment: she holds a Sensory and Consumer Science Certificate from UC Davis, alongside ASQ certifications in Quality Auditing, Quality Management and Organizational Excellence, Six Sigma Green Belt, and HACCP auditing. But credentials, she'd be the first to say, are only part of the story.

Rita's motivation is straightforward, and she'll tell you so herself: "I love quality and food safety, and I'm inspired by the opportunity to support businesses that may not have access to the same technical resources." It's a simple belief, but one that has translated into something far-reaching.

Volunteering, for Rita, is not a new chapter, it's a thread that runs through who she is. She has given her time and expertise through other organizations, and those experiences reinforced something she already suspected: that even small contributions can start a change. "I want to make a difference and contribute to a good cause," she says. "I have found that even with small contributions, it is possible to start a change and make a positive impact." When she discovered Partners in Food Solutions, the fit felt immediate. "I admire the projects and commitment of Partners in Food Solutions. I am happy to help and contribute to their goals."

Over the course of multiple engagements, Rita has worked alongside business owners and their teams to strengthen food safety systems, sharpen operational processes, and build lasting confidence in how they run their businesses. Her approach isn't about sweeping transformation; it's about practical clarity. The kind of guidance that helps a team understand not just what to do, but why it matters.

Her most recent engagement was with Edmass, a food business based in Ghana, where she worked closely with their team to support the company in strengthening their food safety system. It's the kind of virtual support that PFS volunteers provide every day, but the impact it leaves is anything but ordinary.

What strikes Rita most, across every project, is not what she brings to the table, but what the teams she works with already carry. "The commitment and resilience of the local teams," she says. "Despite limited resources, they are highly motivated to learn and improve." That energy, she notes, is what makes the work feel truly meaningful. Because progress here is never one-sided. Rita brings technical know-how; her client teams bring ownership, drive, and a hunger to grow. Together, something shifts.

And she has seen it shift. "Even small contributions and guidance can have a meaningful impact. It's rewarding to see improvement, to motivate teams, and to support better operations." Those moments of progress, however incremental, ripple outward. Stronger systems mean safer food. Safer food means stronger businesses. Stronger businesses mean more resilient communities.

"Supporting local companies strengthens communities, improves food access, and creates long-term impact," Rita reflects. It's a truth that volunteers like her live out, one project at a time.

Her work is also a natural extension of the values she holds at Hershey, a commitment to quality, integrity, and acting in ways that move others forward. Through PFS, those values don't stay within the walls of a corporation. They travel. They land in a factory in Lagos, a processing unit in Nairobi, or a miller working toward their food safety certification.

That is the quiet power of volunteering, not just giving time, but applying what you know in service of someone else's growth. And trusting, as Rita does, that even the smallest contribution can start something meaningful.