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Student/Farmworker Alliance (SFA) is a national network of students, youth and other community members organizing with farmworkers to eliminate sweatshop conditions and modern-day slavery in the fields. We understand our work - which formally began in 2000 - as part of larger movements for economic and social justice. We work in alliance with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a membership-led organization of mostly Latino, Haitian, and Mayan Indian farmworkers and other low-wage workers based in Southwest Florida.

In 2005, farmworkers from the CIW and their allies scored a decisive victory in the national Taco Bell boycott. Yielding to growing nationwide pressure from the CIW, students, and other allies, Taco Bell and its parent company Yum Brands - the world’s largest restaurant corporation - conceded to all of the boycott’s demands, agreeing to work with the CIW to improve the sub-poverty wages and miserable working conditions of farmworkers in its tomato supply chain. In 2007, Yum Brands expanded this agreement to cover all five of its chains (which include KFC and Pizza Hut).

Also in 2007, following two years of intense campaigning, the CIW reached a landmark agreement with McDonald's - the world's largest restaurant chain - to develop mechanisms to extend these crucial gains across the entire tomato industry.

As the "target market" of the fast-food industry, students and youth were vital in the grassroots coalitions that won these incredible victories. During the Taco Bell boycott, twenty-two high schools and universities removed or prevented Taco Bell restaurants and sponsorships as part of SFA’s “Boot the Bell” campaign. Similarly, we were able to turn McDonald's supposed marketing "sweet spot" into a well-organized sore spot.

Through tireless organizing grounded in a program of education, action, and leadership development we were part of winning two of the largest victories against corporate greed that our generation has seen, and we're just getting started. Alongside farmworkers, we're creating - and walking - the path to a better world.

• education – raising awareness about farmworkers’ struggles
  Organizers facilitate educational activities through which students and farmworkers have the opportunity to come together in an exchange of knowledge and experience, cultivating a critical analysis that reveals the intersections between people on opposite ends of the corporate food industry. This includes worker- and student-led workshops, speaking tours, alternative spring breaks, and internships.
  
  
• action – uniting with worker-led campaigns
  We are committed to building a base of members whose understanding of social change and injustice in the fields leads them to act in solidarity with farmworkers and simultaneously toward a broader vision of collective liberation. This includes supporting worker-led campaigns for better wages and working conditions and organizing with workers towards the democratization of agricultural labor relations and, more broadly, the global economy.
  
  
• leadership development – building a larger movement
  In all aspects of our work, we focus heavily on developing the skills and confidence of students and youth so they can organize for social justice around a broad array of issues in their communities.