The California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement recently gave its highest honor to the Chicago-based nonprofit food safety organization STOP Foodborne Illness.

In presenting its Golden Checkmark award to the food safety organization, LGMA stated that it was recognizing the group’s “advocacy for victims of foodborne illness and its support of mandatory government oversight of food safety.” Accepting the LGMA award were STOP’s CEO Deirdre Schlunegger, STOP board member Jorge Hernandez, and Rylee Gustafson, who was sickened in a 2006 E. coli outbreak linked to fresh spinach. LGMA began working with STOP Foodborne Illness about four years ago when volunteers impacted by foodborne illnesses went to California to find out more about how the group worked with produce growers to emphasize food safety. According to LGMA’s CEO Scott Horsfall, that was the beginning of a important and effective collaboration and one that resulted in a jointly produced video to help train produce workers. “We got them together with growers,” Horsfall recently told The Packer newspaper. “It was a powerful and emotional time and we’ve maintained a close relationship ever since.” (To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News, click here.)