73 Bühler volunteers serve 53 entrepreneurs in 9 countries

For the last year and a half, Marc Zipperle has volunteered as client lead for SITRAV, a spice manufacturer in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa. A client lead serves as a relationship and project manager, overseeing and supporting the engagement of project volunteers with a PFS client. Client leads are the single point of contact for the client, volunteers and field staff. We spoke to him about his experience so far!

I find the idea of how PFS works very cool. It is a great idea at its core and a pragmatic approach for scaling access to know-how for smaller businesses. It also provides a great cultural exchange – I previously had no ties to Côte d’Ivoire (or West Africa) but now I do! I volunteer to help and be part of a team outside of work that can support companies like SITRAV and the community at large. They have an entrepreneurial spirit that creates value in the community, and it feels great to support and be part of it, even though I think my personal contribution is very, very small. I hope to be able to visit their facility or try their spices sometime in the future! 

The client lead role was recommended to me when I decided to join PFS. I was not an expert in the technical areas that SITRAV needed support with but instead I have a broad knowledge base and experience in the food industry so that role made the most sense for me. It is a role where you can learn a lot from actual experts because you are part of different projects that require different skill sets.

Communication is the major challenge, and this can be broken down into different layers. Firstly, is language. The SITRAV team speaks French, which I understand very well, but have difficulty speaking. Thankfully we have PFS program manager Caroline on the ground, who often acts as our interpreter during our meetings!

The second layer is timing. Imagine connecting three volunteers from three different continents and time zones, who all have to make time for volunteering. It is inevitable that sometimes calls get delayed. The process very much reminds me of the metaphor often put forward by a European politician on the efforts of fostering European integration. “Even though a bicycle might be slow sometimes, the important thing is that it does not stop, otherwise it falls over.” I find the same reasoning applies to all project work.

The third layer is project and topic complexity. Some topics require more expertise than others and are harder to understand, learn, and implement. Luckily, we have so many experts and great communicators at PFS!

Just do it and then keep at it!  To start off, I would recommend getting informed. Read up on PFS, schedule a call with PFS ambassadors, or join an event at your company. It can be a very rewarding experience, even though progress might seem slow sometimes, especially if you are used to a buzzing corporate environment.

A food safety management system is a systematic approach used by food processors to ensure the safety of food products throughout their entire lifecycle – from production to consumption. For PFS’ client Wedgehut Foods, a potato processing company in Kenya, it was important for them to have such a system in place to ensure that their products would be made in a controlled environment that guarantees food safety and quality. 

“It is and will always be a pleasure for me to serve so that the world’s population consumes food of excellent quality and is sustainable over time,” he shared. Leveraging his experience in food safety systems and production operations, Luis conducted a thorough review of the fresh-cut chips’ production process. He helped the Wedgehut team update their process flow chart and HACCP plan and guided them in assessing rework procedures and on water quality and safety management.