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"This is the hidden weapon of people who have no power: They have to get other people who have no power to join them, and if enough powerless people join together, then a new power is created, and when that happens, even the most powerful and the most wealthy corporations have to yield."
December 14, 2009 - This past week, the "hidden weapon" described by Zinn was on display as representatives from the CIW and SFA joined Baltimore's United Workers for the first-ever Fair Food Solidarity Tour, organized by the UW to draw the connections between the food industry's exploitation of farmworkers in the fields and of low-wage workers employed in places like Baltimore's Inner Harbor. In the first of the tour's several actions, over 60 people braved frigid temperatures for an action in front of Aramark's Philadelphia headquarters, sending a powerful message to the company that, even as this semester comes to a close, students on campuses across the U.S. are monitoring its response to the Dine with Dignity campaign, and are prepared to launch a Spring semester of intense organizing and action. And with that next semester of action in the Dine with Dignity campaign just on the horizon, SFA needs your support now more than ever. This holiday season please consider becoming a sustaining member of SFA, and instead of asking your family and friends for more stuff you really don't need, encourage them to do so too! "This is just the beginning:" 500+ workers and allies "Walk for Farmworker Justice" in Lakeland Supporters from 6 months to 93 years of age join the CIW for a spirited and moving action, leave Lakeland with a clear message to Publix: "We'll be back!"
Students from across Florida and the country — from the children of farmworkers in Immokalee to those studying in St. Petersburg, Miami, Gainesville, California, Texas and Wisconsin — were on hand to demonstrate their unwavering support for the Campaign for Fair Food, from the spirited picket that started the day's festivities through the 2-mile-plus march in Lakeland's downtown to the rally that capped off more than 5 hours of action with the sunset as its backdrop. Visit the CIW site for a must-see photo report from the march, and be sure to check out these reports and photo galleries too:
On the heels of the march, Publix has been nominated to receive Jobs with Justice's annual Scrooge of the Year Award! From videotaping workers and their children during peaceful protests to continuing to purchase tomatoes from two farms where those held in last season's brutal slavery operation worked picking tomatoes, Publix has proven that it is well-deserving of a title that would put them in the ranks of the most miserly of misers. Click here to vote for Publix today! Finally, we end today's update with this thought from the CIW's report from Lakeland:
December 8, 2009 - Many of us who participated in the Aramark call-in days of action a couple weeks ago were met by a recorded greeting from company executives that went something like this:
That all sounds wonderful, and we certainly welcome good-faith efforts on the part of Aramark to reach a mutually beneficial resolution to this campaign and to the endemic exploitation and abuse faced by farmworkers. But the Dine with Dignity campaign focusing on Aramark and Sodexo is far from over. Experience tells us that until a true agreement is reached — one that enshrines the participation of workers in the implementation and enforcement of said agreement — all the nice words and declarations in the world (often deployed to shield the company from criticism) just don't add up to much. It's simple. Aramark needs to agree to work directly with the CIW -- as Compass Group has -- to improve wages and working conditions in the fields. Compass Group has set the standard for social responsibility in the food service provider industry's tomato supply chains and Aramark (and Sodexo) must at least rise to that same standard. If not, students will continue to organize and build awareness on our campuses around Aramark (and Sodexo) and the whispers of replacing Aramark with a more responsible food service provider -- Bon Appetit or Chartwell's, both owned by Compass Group, for example -- will grow into a clamor on campuses across the country. There's a certain tinge to recent declarations from Aramark that we should be mindful of. There's no better way to encapsulate what we are demanding of Aramark than to turn to the words of Reverend Noelle Damico at the ceremony announcing of the CIW-Compass agreement:
Time — and our continued involvement in this campaign — will tell if Aramark embraces that spirit of mutual respect or continues to defer the just demands of farmworkers and their allies.
Update: December 4, 2009 - Flurry of media calling out Publix over its inaction in the face of farmworker abuse as workers, allies prepare for December 6:
December 1, 2009 - From Colorado to Texas to Florida, the Campaign for Fair Food boils over with action!:
Check out the above links and the media page for all the latest news from campuses and communities across the country (including this report from the just-completed Supermarket Week of Action), and finalize your plans today to join us in Lakeland this Sunday for the CIW's biggest action of the season! This harvest season, take action for fair food!
Take Action! Email Aramark and Sodexo to demand they help put an end to the 'harvest of shame' today!
Click here for all the latest DwD news! CIW, Compass and East Coast forge partnership to bring "sweeping changes" for farmworkers! "There's no question that this is the greatest victory for farmworkers since Cesar Chavez in the 1970s." -Eric Schlosser, author, Fast Food Nation "The vision that CIW has pursued and is beginning to see come to fruition is an inspiring one, and a model for the nation." -Katrina Vanden Heuvel, Editor, The Nation
September 27, 2009 - The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Compass Group (the world's largest food service provider and parent company of Chartwell's), major tomato grower East Coast, and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis gathered in Washington on Friday to announce an agreement that may signal, in the words of US Senator Bernie Sanders, "the beginning of the end of the harvest of shame that has existed for far too long in Florida's tomato fields." During the press conference, Compass representatives credited a student-led delegation to their headquarters during the early stages of SFA's Dine With Dignity campaign with bringing the plight of tomato pickers to the company's attention and opening the door to dialogue with the CIW. Without a doubt, the CIW's Campaign for Fair Food is bearing fruit. Thanks in no small part to the work of the CIW's student and youth allies, the purchasing power of the world's largest fast food corporations — now joined by the world's largest food service provider — has been harnessed to transform the face of Florida agriculture. Today, companies such as Aramark, Sodexo and Publix no longer have an excuse to remain on the sidelines. If the changes announced on Friday are to reach further, more large tomato purchasers must also throw their weight behind the principles of full human rights and fair wages for farmworkers. The Dine with Dignity campaign and the upcoming Fall semester of action — starting with the October 5-9 national Days of Action — beckon our attention and our energy more urgently than ever.
September 21, 2009 - From September 10-13, Immokalee played host to nearly 100 students & youth for SFA's fifth-annual Encuentro! Over the course of the weekend, Encuentro participants built relationships, attended workshops, had fun, and sweated in the intense Florida heat -- all while strategizing around the upcoming year in the Campaign for Fair Food and SFA's Dine with Dignity campaign. Don't miss the exclusive photo report here and download the extensive Encuentro resources packet here.
With last week's news of a major Florida tomato grower (East Coast) agreeing to work with the CIW to fully implement the CIW's six agreements with corporate food giants (see links below), this promises to be a truly breakthrough and unforgettable season in the Campaign. We now turn to those companies that have remained on the sidelines, companies like Aramark and Sodexo, Publix and Kroger, Costco and WalMart, and ask them: Now that East Coast has stepped forward, when are you going to step up?
Click here for more information on this exciting new campaign and to become a Sustaining Member of the Student/Farmworker Alliance today. "Becoming a sustainer is one of the easiest and most direct ways to enable this important work to continue on its own terms." August 31, 2009 - On the verge of our 5th-annual Encuentro and an intense season of organizing and action in the Dine with Dignity campaign, our movement is stronger than ever. It also needs your support more than ever. For a fraction of what you might spend every month on coffee, beer, or going to the movies, you could make a contribution to help SFA — one of today's most dynamic youth and student movements fighting for economic justice — achieve new victories and climb new heights as we work to transform our food system and build a base of stable, independent, no-strings-attached, grassroots funding.
Update: August 10, 2009 - Call Chipotle today! July 22, 2009 - "Don't believe the hype." That was the message brought by Fair Food activists to moviegoers across the country at recent Chipotle-sponsored screenings of the documentary "Food, Inc." Check out some great pics and first-hand reports to learn more about Chipotle's "hype" and our response:
Start getting ready for what promises to be a season of intense action in the Dine with Dignity campaign and the Campaign for Fair Food as we call on Aramark, Sodexo, leading supermarket chains and Chipotle to do the right thing!
June 15, 2009 - As we look toward the 2009 Encuentro and a fall season of intense action and organizing, another powerful step in the Dine with Dignity campaign was just taken as Students for Sustainable Agriculture and Chicano Studies 50 at the University of California-Davis successfully pushed a resolution through their student government calling on Sodexo to "meet with the CIW and... implement an enforceable, human rights-based Code of Conduct for its tomato supply chain." (Click here for the full text of the resolution, which comes on the heels of a similar resolution passed at Wichita State University and semester-ending actions from Philadelphia to Southern Illinois.) Plus, in a landmark moment for the Campaign for Fair Food, two of Florida's largest organic growers have agreed to pass the extra penny-per-pound on to workers and meet strict labor standards, effectively breaking the stalemate instituted by the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange two years ago! Our friends at Philadelphia's (yes, that's also where Aramark headquarters is located) own Media Mobilizing Project had this to say about the great news:
Speaking of Aramark and the rest of the food service provider industry, the Dine with Dignity campaign will be back stronger than ever this Fall, and there's no better way to deepen your involvement than to join us in Immokalee this September 10-13 2009 for the 5th-annual SFA Encuentro, quickly shaping up to be our most important one yet. Whether you're an SFA "old-timer" or just beginning to get involved, apply today to join us for a long weekend of strategizing, relationship-building, training & reflecting not only on the Campaign for Fair Food & our work in solidarity with the CIW, but also on the nature & significance of our shared work for global justice & social change. Click here for more info and don't miss some of the latest news from the campaign right here:
Campaign continues with May actions and more as students call on Aramark, Chartwells and Sodexo to follow Bon Appétit's lead Update: May 4, 2009 - As the Dine with Dignity campaign picks up steam on campuses across the country, news of the campaign's first victory has created quite the buzz in the sustainable food movement. Grist.org's Tom Philpott ends his reflection on the agreement with a statement that echoes the thoughts of many supporters of the Campaign for Fair Food today: "With Bon Appetit rejecting dismal conditions and slave labor for the workers who pick the food it buys, I hope other large food-service providers like Sodexo and Aramark jump on board" ("Another victory for the CIW," Grist, 5/3). April 29, 2009 - The month-old "Dine with Dignity" campaign notches its first victory today as food service provider Bon Appétit has come together with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to establish an "innovative new model for fair labor standards in Florida's tomato fields." Check out the CIW site and the below links now for more details on this exciting new agreement that breaks new ground in the Campaign for Fair Food. According to the CIW, the agreement "is a great first cut at building a relationship between farmworkers and their employers based on a genuine appreciation for the value of farmworkers' labor - something that has been absent since the birth of the agricultural industry in Florida - and driven by a vision of universal human rights." In light of this agreement, we take one step closer toward "Dining with Dignity" on our campuses, but much work remains to be done. Students will continue to organize on campuses holding contracts with Aramark, Chartwells, and Sodexo until those corporations similarly agree to take responsibility for the human rights abuses and poverty faced by farmworkers in their tomato supply chains - so check out the Dine with Dignity campaign today and get involved on a campus near you!
Dine with Dignity campaign surges forward on campuses across the country!
Students gear up for campus events and actions this May 1st April 21, 2009 - Join students across the country and organize your own Dine with Dignity event or action in the coming days — a great way to combine the message of Fair Food with the nationwide May 1st mobilizations and to also finish the semester strong and give your food service provider something to think about this summer! (Don't forget to let us know what you're up to!)
For decades, farmworkers have endured grinding poverty due to the low-cost, high-volume purchasing practices of the corporate food industry. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers-led Campaign for Fair Food is slowly changing that reality. Yet, after eight years of our campaign, seven high-profile farmworker slavery convictions, and five of the world's leading food retailers having agreed to work with the CIW to improve conditions in the fields, Aramark, Sodexo and Compass continue to stand on the sidelines, arms crossed. The Dine with Dignity launch signals the beginning of a new chapter in a story whose first lines were written 15 years ago by workers in a dusty, forgotten corner of Florida — a story now known the world over. And although we know how this chapter will end, one question lingers: To all our fellow students, friends, and neighbors who dare to dream of a better world: what will your part be in writing this story?
CIW holds powerful theater on Capitol steps and secures first-ever farmworker meeting with sitting FL Gov; SFA gears up for official launch of food service campaign to coincide with Student/Labor Week of Action and National Farmworker Awareness Week! March 12, 2009 - CIW members traveled to Tallahassee earlier this week and held a theater and press conference on the Capitol steps to draw attention to the plague of modern-day slavery in Florida's fields and call on Gov. Charlie Crist to break his silence on the issue. Just one day later, the Governor agreed to met with the CIW to address modern-day slavery and the day-to-day conditions that give rise to it! The meeting is scheduled for March 25. (For more on the Governor meeting and what it ultimately means, click here.) SFA members came out to the press conference from across the state and region and had these words to say to the Governor and to some of the major food service corporations on our campuses:
In just days, we will officially launch our national food service campaign - the latest phase in the struggle for fair food. Through the rest of the semester, and especially during the Student/Labor Week of Action and Farmworker Awareness Week, we will be calling on SFA'ers and supporters across the country to deliver a clear message to their campus dining administrators and food service corporations that we demand fair food on our campuses. Contact us for details about how you can get involved and take action. In the meantime, check out the Stir it Up Campus and Real Food Challenge sites for extensive background info on the food service provider industry and how we as students can have a voice in the food that is served at our schools. As we stand at the threshold of a new phase of the campaign, one thing is for certain: After eight years of the Campaign for Fair Food, seven high-profile farmworker slavery cases since 1997, and five of the world's leading food retailers agreeing to work with the CIW to improve conditions in the fields, Aramark, Sodexo and Chartwells can no longer feign ignorance of the human rights crisis in their tomato supply chains or claim that the solution to this crisis is not possible. Soon, we will embark on a new chapter in the campaign and a new chapter in our own history as students and young people fighting for a better world. Will you be part of writing this history?
CIW, allies to deliver petition signatures & re-enact brutal slavery operation in "popular theater" at Florida Capitol on Monday, March 9th Sign the petition on Facebook and share with all your friends! Update: March 2, 2009 - Take a moment today to join the e-action to Florida Governor Charlie Crist, calling on him to not only publicly condemn the continuing existence of modern-day slavery in his state, but also to use the power of his office to demand that the Florida Tomato Growers' Exchange end its opposition to the agreements reached between the CIW and leading corporate purchasers of Florida tomatoes to improve farmworker wages and working conditions — the conditions that provide the fertile soil in which modern-day slavery takes root. For background information, click here and see this Background FAQ on Gov. Crist, modern-day slavery, and the FTGE. Plus, don't miss all the latest news from the campaign:
Campaign for Fair Food sets its sights on food service providers, supermarkets in 2009 January 6, 2009 - As a new year and a new phase in the campaign both begin, we'd like to take a moment to remember & reflect upon some highlights from 2008. Click here and scroll up to relive all the action from last year - including the National Petition Campaign, the Burger King spy scandal, and THREE (count 'em!) major victories. We start 2009 in a new direction: targeting the food service providers (such as Aramark, Sodexo, Compass and Bon Appétit) and supermarket chains that -- as the fast-food industry before them -- profit from the egregious exploitation of farmworkers in their supply chains. Stay tuned for all the coming news and info on how you can get involved in these new and exciting campaigns!
__________________________ Check out the news archive for campaign news & developments from 2005 through 2008 |
PO Box 603, Immokalee, FL 34143 :: (239) 657-8311 :: organize (at) sfalliance.org
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With flags reappropriating the ubiquitous Publix "P" to spell "end the Poverty," 
Governor agrees to meet with CIW; food service campaign up next! 
