Whole Foods Teaches Rating System

AUSTIN, Texas — Implementing the new Global Animal Partnership’s 5-Step Animal Welfare Standards Rating Program at Whole Foods Market has required a corporate commitment to store-level training, according to a recent post on the company’s official “Whole Story” blog.

“The first thing we did was set up a training program for all our Team Members,” explained Jim Zola, meat coordinator for 23 Whole Foods locations in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. “Tate Ramos, our associate meat coordinator/trainer, did an incredible job of training our Meat Team Members with a 3-hour presentation on the 5-Step Program followed by a written test. From there, we trained our marketing and in-store educators so they could also train all Team Members in the stores.”

The program took Zola and Ramos a month to implement at the 23 locations.