The Campaign for Fair Food
Since 2001, Immokalee farmworkers have partnered with students to educate consumers on the issue of farm labor exploitation – its causes and solutions – and advance the Campaign for Fair Food to enlist the market power of major food retailers to help end that exploitation.
The Campaign for Fair Food has combined creative, on-the-ground actions with cutting edge online organizing to win Fair Food Agreements with 14 multi-billion dollar food retailers, including Walmart and McDonald’s, establishing more humane farm labor standards and fairer wages for farmworkers.
our theory of change
movement memories
Campaign Timeline
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March 2001
Students from across Florida (including FGCU, New College, USF, UF, FSU, UM) answer the call to walk alongside farmworkers in the first action outside Immokalee: the 234-mile "March for Dignity, Dialogue and a Fair Wage." Marchers make their way to the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association, walking (without permits!) from sun-up to sunset for 15 days straight.
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May 2001
May Day of Action becomes SFA's first multi-city coordinated protest. 10 Taco Bell actions are carried out across Florida, including the Tomato-tron: a six foot tall papier-mâché tomato filled with rotten tomatoes that was chained to the Taco Bell drive-thru in Gainesville.
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Summer 2001
SFA launches "Boot the Bell" campaign. In the four years that follow, students win 25 hard-fought victories, removing or blocking Taco Bell restaurants and contracts on campuses nationwide. Over 300 universities and high schools are involved, creating a strong national network of students and youth.
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March 2005
Taco Bell Boycott victory! Years of persistent and creative student and youth organizing around the campaign is key to Taco Bell becoming the first corporation to sign with the CIW.
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August 2005
SFA holds its first annual Student & Youth Encuentro! 60+ students come together in Immokalee to share stories, skills and songs while strategizing for the next phase in the struggle for farmworker justice: taking on the rest of the fast-food industry. The first SFA Steering Committee forms shortly after.
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April 2007
Following a two-year battle with the largest restaurant chain in the world, - including relentless actions and education by students and youth across the country - McDonald's and the CIW reach a landmark agreement just days before the announcement of a nationwide boycott. The planned Carnaval for Justice & Dignity in Downtown Chicago is changed to a raucous Concert for Fair Food at the House of Blues, where countless artists (including Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello & Zach de la Rocha, performing together for the first time in seven years) play to a crowd of 2,000+.
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May 2008
After creative actions such as the "Tomato Freakout," various "days of actions," petitions, tours, marches several-thousand strong, and an unsuccessful campaign of dirty corporate tricks against CIW and SFA, including infiltrating SFA, Burger King fires two CEO's and reaches an agreement with the CIW.
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March 2009
SFA launches Dine with Dignity. SFA is charged with crafting and coordinating a campus-based campaign, and hundreds of students across the country take up the call to demand justice in their dining halls. Bon Appétit signs just weeks after launch, and within sixteen months, the three largest food service providers - Compass Group, Aramark and Sodexo - also join the Fair Food Program.
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2012
Double Victory! SFA lands a one-two punch in 2012, helping bring both Trader Joe's and Chipotle Mexican Grill into the Fair Food fold. TJ's signs on the eve of a 43-city coordinated day of action as it opens its first Florida store: the culmination of a national campaign begun two years earlier by the Community Farmworker Alliance in New York City. A powerful remnant of the McDonalds days, the Chipotle campaign finally comes to an end days before CIW and members of Denver Fair Food crash the company's "Cultivate Festival" in the Mile High City.
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January 2013
The CIW launches its campaign against Wendy's and SFAers across the Fair Food Nation flood Wendy's with letters on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, demanding that the lone major fast food holdout join the Fair Food Program. The coming year sees 300 people march through Midtown Manhattan during Wendy's shareholder meeting, several hundred protesting in dozens of cities during Wendy's Founder's Week - including a 200 person march in Wendy's hometown of Columbus, OH, and a spirited crashing of the ribbon cutting ceremony at Wendy's "flagship" store.
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March 2013
March for Rights, Respect and Fair Food - a throwback to the 2000 March for Dignity, Dialogue, and a Fair Wage - farmworkers and allies overtake Highway 41, making their way up Florida's west coast on a 200-mile journey from Ft. Myers to Lakeland. After two weeks of daily marching, the core contingent grows to 1500+ as it traverses the final miles before descending upon Publix headquarters for a rally and celebration.
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January 2014
SFA launches the “Boot the Braids” Campaign, where students work to cut contracts with Wendy’s on their campus. That spring sees over 800 allies march on Wendy’s headquarters in Dublin, OH, as part of the “Now Is The Time” Tour.
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March 2015
After a colorful parade with over 3,000 people in St. Petersburg, FL, SFA leaders declare a national boycott of Wendy’s during the epic 2015 Concert for Fair Food.
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November 2015
SFA stages “Schooling Wendy’s Week of Action” with 20+ major protests across the country, exposing Wendy’s failure to support farmworkers' human rights.
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March 2016
The CIW declares a national boycott against Wendy’s after the company shifts its tomato purchases to Mexico. The finale in Palm Beach, FL — where Wendy’s Board Chair Nelson Peltz resides — saw over 500 South Floridians march alongside 100+ CIW farmworkers and their families in solidarity.
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Fall 2016
The CIW embarks on six regional “Truth Tours,” featuring mobilizations in over a dozen cities, to raise consciousness around the Wendy’s Boycott and the horrific conditions faced by farmworkers in the Mexican tomato industry.
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March 2017
Nineteen Ohio State University (OSU) students go without food for 7 days, demanding President Drake cut the contract with Wendy’s. The fast ended with a 500-person march in Columbus, OH.
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November 2017
Farmworker women launch “Harvest without Violence” campaign to end sexual harassment and assault in Wendy’s supply chain, featuring a mobile exhibit and major actions in Columbus and NYC.
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March 2018
Over 2,000 march in NYC to end a 6-day “Freedom Fast” carried out by over 100 farmworkers, students and allies.
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March 2019
The historic “Four for Fair Food” tour includes a 250-person march to UNC Chapel Hill’s campus, a sit-in outside of the office of OSU’s president, a beautiful celebration in Ann Arbor, and a 300-person march through the University of Florida (one of the largest protests in UF’s history).
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November 2020
The CIW launches the “Deliver with Dignity” Campaign to urge DoorDash and other food delivery companies to drop Wendy’s from their list of options until the corporation joins the Fair Food Program.
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April 2022
The March Against Modern Slavery in the Fields takes 800+ farmworkers and their allies through streets of Palm Beach — one of the country’s wealthiest and most powerful communities, home to Wendy’s Board Chair Nelson Peltz, as well as some of Wendy’s largest shareholders — to demand that the corporation join the Fair Food Program.
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March 2023
Nearly 600 farmworkers and their allies march through the streets of Palm Beach in the culmination of a five-day, 50+ mile trek across south Florida demanding that the remaining Fair Food holdouts join the Fair Food Program.
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April 2023
The New York City Council adopts a resolution endorsing the Wendy’s Boycott and urging Wendy’s New York based Board Chair Nelson Peltz to bring the company into the Fair Food Program!
Campaign Resources
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