News
Partner with AFE to Share Industry Resources
July 15, 2022
DWF Delivers Care & Handling Posters to Retail Florists
The American Floral Endowment (AFE) aims support the industry through resources that help floriculture businesses grow like the best practices based on funded research, the AFE Career Center, scholarships, internships, grants, and more. This year, at the Great Lakes Floral & Event Expo, AFE connected with John Smith, Manager of DWF’s Toledo branch to form a partnership to share AFE’s impactful resources directly with his local floral community.
DWF is a longtime supporter of AFE, including their 2022 Fundraising Campaign. John recalls, “I’ve worked in the industry for 42 years and know that the Endowment has always been around supporting and empowering floral industry businesses like ours.” He was interested in sharing AFE’s resources more broadly with DWF’s network by delivering the Care & Handling Posters directly to their partnered retail florist shops.
The Endowment mailed 150 Care & Handling Posters to DWF for free. Yes, these key industry resources are provided totally free of charge to anyone who asks. From there, John Smith divided the posters amongst his six delivery drivers to be distributed across Ohio, Michigan, and some of Indiana. Partnerships like these help the Endowment to share its resources more broadly and help the industry increase profits.
“If the employees of the floral shops read and follow these posters, it will save the businesses a lot of money in the long run. It just makes sense,” noted Smith. The posters show best practices to ensure that retailers can provide the best quality product to their customers. The instructions on the posters come directly from proven AFE-funded research on care & handling. It stresses the three C’s – Cooling, Cleanliness, and Care – all essential factors to keeping flowers at their best! “This will ensure that floral shops throw away less product,” added Smith, knowing that the increased lifespan of flowers through best practices will ultimately decrease waste.
Additionally, with the current labor shortages, many shops are experiencing a lot of turnover, “this poster is a great tool for onboarding new employees. It makes people pay more attention and be mindful with the product.” The Endowment also sent 150 postcards showing the Career Center and AFE’s other recruitment resources, all aimed at helping the industry as a whole. From posting a job to participating in job fairs, AFE has resources to make the hiring process easier with customizable job templates and more.
“For many years, AFE has been educating people and promoting our industry,” stated Smith. In fact, the Endowment has been the leading charitable organization for the floral industry for over 60 years now; And it is only through ongoing industry support from partners like DWF that the Endowment can continue to serve and provide these impactful resources.
Request a Poster or Become a Partner
You can order a poster for your business today! Or, if you’d like to partner with AFE to deliver resources to your network, reach out to us at communications@afeendowment.org.
By Karin Krause, AFE’s Manager of Communications and Outreach
