Breakfast on Day 7 was provided by our new friends at the Manatee United Methodist Church in Bradenton. Over a delicious meal, the bike team shared stories with their hosts of the many years of great support from Bishop Timothy Whitaker in the Campaign for Fair Food.

Here Darinel stands with Faith United Church of Christ's congregational president holding "comma cookies" an emblem of the UCC slogan to "never place a period where God has put a comma." (This summer, at its General Synod meeting in Tampa, the UCC placed an exclamation point where Publix has put an ellipses, with a spontaneous 450-person picket that engulfed the sidewalks of a nearby Publix store!)

During lunch, the Rev. Dr. Jack Barnes (above), a retired Disciples of Christ minister, examines the "Prayer Commitment Card from Disappointed Publix Customer," which draws on an idea expressed in his excellent piece in the Bradenton Times entitled "The Publix Guarantee is at Risk," in which he wrote:

"... The leaders of the fast-food and foodservice industries are on board to do this, resulting in landmark gains for the workers. Yet, in the words of Reggie Brown of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, 'Everybody in the system has to be invested for it to work' and Publix’s continued rejection of these advances truly threatens to undermine them, setting a dangerous example for the rest of the supermarket industry. Which is why 'The Publix Guarantee' is at risk, the famous vow to customers that, 'we will never knowingly disappoint you.' The company’s indefensible refusal to support the best hope for more ethical standards in Florida’s tomato fields is nothing if not disappointing."

Following the meal, the congregants and the CIW bike team crossed highway 60 to reach the River's Edge Publix. Here, Oscar arrives with Publix's fair-trade coffee in hand, an a tangible testament to the hypocrisy of Publix's position on the Campaign for Fair Food.

The unity between the workers from Immokalee and their faith allies was on display, and the message to Publix couldn't have been clearer.

As the crew prepared for the ride through downtown Bradenton, a van pulled off into the church parking lot and a woman emerged who excitedly told the bikers that she had read about the Pilgrimage, supported the cause, and wanted a picture with the riders for her own scrapbook. The bike tour documentation team, of course, took their own picture for the CIW's scrapbook, too.

Bob Forbes (above), a Presbyterian ally from Sarasota who not only coordinated the donation of 125 bikes to the CIW last year for distribution within Immokalee, but also trained the bike crew on a ride to Naples the week before our Pilgrimage, then led the way across the Manatee River. In an excellent 2.5-minute audio report for Free Speech Radio News this week, Bob told of his experience many years back meeting George Jenkins and his disbelief at the company's position under Jenkins' grandson's leadership.

On the other side of the river was the city of Palmetto, a name almost as well-known among tomato circles as Immokalee, and home to one of the CIW's most committed partners in the Fair Food Program, Pacific Tomato Growers. The day, just 11 months ago, when we jointly announced the signing of the Fair Food agreement with executives from Pacific will go down as one of the most important days in the history of farm labor in Florida.

And that partnership -- which has only grown stronger in the months since signing our agreement, as we have worked together to define the terms of implementation of the Fair Food standards across the rest of the Florida tomato industry this coming season -- is what Publix has strategically chosen to mischaracterize as a "labor dispute" in an efforts to confuse and misinform consumers who call on the grocery giant to do its part and support the Fair Food program.

The crew arrived later that day in Ellenton, where their stay at Mercy-on-the-Manatee included a superb dinner with a number of local Pax Christi activists.

The next morning, they headed north on 301, for the first time on the trip leaving the city life far behind. The day's travels took them past pastures and farmlands, including several raised beds that would soon be planted with tomato plants for the coming season.

That evening they stayed with longtime CIW allies at the Beth-El Farmworker Ministry in Wimauma, a farming community that in its poverty and isolation is remarkably similar to Immokalee. The roadside sign awaiting us wished the bikers luck on their ride to Lakeland and proclaimed "Juntos Venceremos" (Together we will overcome). The next morning, the bike crew divided into groups to visit three separate churches and share word of our Campaign. Above, Rev. Ramiro Ros of the Ministry holds a sign reading "The people demand justice"...

... while the Rev. Dr. Mark Salmon, suited up in a Guatemalan stole, introduces Wilson and Jordan of Interfaith Action to a group of Presbyterians at St. Andrew's in nearby Sun City Center, a neighboring retiree community where golf carts (almost) outnumber cars...

... and Oscar addresses a packed house at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Wimauma -- a parish that shares a name with Immokalee's home Catholic congregation, where the CIW first began to gather to confront abuses in the tomato industry nearly twenty years ago.

Next stop: Lakeland and Publix HQ... Don't miss it!