“I’m incredibly grateful to be part of an organization that strongly promotes volunteer work,” said Susana Godoy Bailey, administrative manager at Ardent Mills. Originally from Venezuela, Susana has been with the company for eight years and most recently moved to Canada to serve in her current role at the Streetsville, Ontario flour mill. “I was very excited to have the chance to contribute in any possible way to making a positive impact in someone’s life,” said Susana. “Also, the chance to learn from other cultures was a huge motivation for me to volunteer with PFS.”
Susana started volunteering with Partners in Food Solutions in March 2021 and a few weeks later was matched with client Reel Fruit in Nigeria as their Client Lead. Client Leads work with one client at a time, serving as their project manager to ensure project teams are supported and projects get completed in a timely manner. “My favorite part about being a Client Lead is definitely witnessing the incredible teamwork dynamic between the customer, volunteers, and PFS,” she said. “This experience is such a lesson in life and to witness the progress of the project from the beginning to its completion is an incredibly rewarding experience.”
Earlier this year, Susana took on her second Client Lead role with PFS client Zatwa in Côte d’Ivoire. “Susana has been so proactive in understanding Zatwa’s two projects and ask-an-expert,” said Bernadette Arthur, PFS program associate in Ghana. “Susana wields great emotional intelligence, a clear sense of direction, and an eye for detail and administrative tasks. On one project call for Zatwa, she helped the project team set S.M.A.R.T. goals to reach the project deliverables, which increased the productivity of the project team. I was very impressed with her ability to make the team feel comfortable and share concerns and questions.” As a program associate, Bernadette is responsible for supporting the West Africa portfolio which includes Ghana, Nigeria, and Côte d’Ivoire. Bernadette’s portfolio alone includes 40+ clients and 85+ different services. “Client leads like Susana are vital to helping break down a project into more manageable pieces. My relationship with client leads is a partnership. They help us deliver the best services to our clients and ensure our volunteer teams are having a meaningful experience working on the project.”
Now that she has overseen several projects, Susana said, “Volunteering can be done if you have the time and the passion to do it. Having all the expertise isn’t needed because there is a team of PFS staff, volunteers, and the client all working together to make sure everyone feels supported and is successful in their role. Volunteering with PFS is truly an incredible experience and by serving together we can make incredible things happen.”
At PFS, partnership is a foundational component of who we are and what makes us sucessful. Every year, we honor several individuals who embody the qualities of our founders, John Mendesh and Peter Erickson. These awards go to people who most demonstrate enthusiasm, drive for results, employ creative problem solving, and show tenacity, grit, wisdom, and humility. Please join us in celebrating our fourth annual PFS Service Award winners…
John Mendesh Award
Gloria Otto, Partners in Food Solutions Program Associate – Ghana
"Gloria is never not smiling, even when the work can be stressful or unpredictable. She oversees a difficult portfolio, but she never shows frustration. Instead, she is focused on how to solve the problem in a way that is achievable and supported by the most people. She does not give up and always has a warm attitude through it all." - PFS Staff Member
Niels Van Mossevelde, DSM Associate Scientist II – Netherlands
"Niels has been an active Client Lead for a while now. He has supported the client with very minimal staffing resources and has been very patient with the client even at their busiest times. He has always joined the project calls with a smile on his face and helped provide solutions to the client apart from leading calls.” - PFS Staff Member
Peter Erickson Award
Eleanor McSweeney, Bühler Business Development Manager – Switzerland
"Eleanor served as a Client Lead for our client in Côte d’Ivoire. She served as a formidable translator, project manager, and always reverted to the team with ideas to overcome project challenges. She worked extremely hard and developed an excellent rapport with the project team to ensure that the client completed their HACCP and Yield Increase Project. She was also prompt with communication and would close projects immensely well. - PFS Staff Member
Dan Dietz, Smucker Director of Engineering & Technical Services – USA
“Dan has been one of the most active Smucker volunteers since they joined PFS. He has already volunteered on three different services and shown so much commitment to the work. He has been patient and understanding and willing to stay on and support a client even while there was political unrest in Ethiopia causing major delays with his client. He offers so much expertise and guidance in the areas of process optimization and product formulation and he does it with grace and humility." - PFS Staff Member
Established in 2010, Fastizers Food and Confectionary is one of Nigeria’s fastest-growing consumer goods companies. The company began by making sweets out of a home kitchen ten years ago and now distributes its products across the country to 26 different states and counting. To meet growing demand, Fastizers Food and Confectionary looked to Partners in Food Solutions for support in expanding their current production facility, from the parking lot to the processing area.
A volunteer from The J.M. Smucker Co., Christopher Ray, was tasked with supporting Fastizers with their facility design project. “I’ve been working at Smucker in R&D since 2016 and have worked within our coffee, Uncrustables, jams and jellies, and ice-cream toppings businesses,” said Chris. “I was looking for an organization in which I can use my educational background and engineering skills that I’ve developed
throughout my career to help in a meaningful way. When I heard about Partners in Food Solutions, I knew I had to get involved.”
Working with another volunteer from Hershey, Christopher reviewed the client’s current facility design and came up with a new design that would allow them to expand from one processing line to four while also ensuring the factory would be HSE and GFSI/FSMS certification compliant. “This volunteer work correlated with one of the projects I was doing at Smucker at the time,” said Christopher. “I thoroughly enjoyed applying my skills to this project and learning about a new company in a different country. Having the opportunity to network with other professionals at different companies was fun, too!”
Since the project finished last year, Fastizers Food and Confectionary has already made significant progress in expanding its facility. The updated layout is a significant improvement from the initial draft, and additional considerations for food safety, human safety, and the environment have been incorporated. Further, information on how dough temp affects the baking has been factored into the quality control program and the volunteer’s edits on the flow made it easier for the client to communicate with their facility architect on their desired plans. Fastizers Food and Confectionary plan to finish constructing the new facility by August 2022.