Safety, as always, remains one of our top priorities at Pine Island Cranberry. In May, we celebrated 200 days incident-free with a pizza party. Last week, we hit the 300 day mark and had another special lunch in recognition.

“We made it another 100 days and that’s a great thing,” said CEO Bill Haines in addressing the team. “What we do is important, but nothing we do is worth getting hurt over. Keep doing it right, and keep looking out for each other.”

COO Bryan vonHahmann agrees: “Farming can be dangerous; there are a lot of things happening all around us simultaneously. But we make sure that we provide exceptional training focused on safety and awareness for things like equipment operations, hydration, and applications, because we want team members to return home to their families with no injuries every day. Safety is a fundamental part of our strategy, and we maintain high standards of safe performance in all we do as part of our tradition of excellence. We’re growers first and foremost, but we always want to do whatever it takes to provide a work environment of highest safety and quality.”

“The hoagie lunch was nice to celebrate 300 days accident-free, but the focus is not on a number, or a day,” says GM Fred Torres. “Working in a safe manner, and using the proper safety equipment in a job, is really the focus here. We are keeping ourselves healthy and working with an awareness of our surroundings, and we are working more efficiently, too.”

In addition, our team leaders also continue to hand out safety kits for each new seasonal team the day he arrives on the farm, and we are keeping better track of inventory this year to make sure all safety gear is up-to-date and always available, whatever it takes.