Rabbis for Human Rights-North America steps into the fray with Publix, Campaign for Fair Food!


Pray-in at Naples Publix caps off day-long delegation 
to Immokalee, tomato fields…

This past Tuesday, a delegation from Rabbis for Human Rights-North America traveled to Immokalee for a day-long immersion in the Campaign for Fair Food. They talked with farmworkers at the CIW community center in Immokalee, met with leaders of the CIW on the very latest developments in the Fair Food Program, and visited a local tomato industry leader to see the new partnership for fairer farm labor conditions in practice in the fields.

And when they were all done, they traveled to a Naples Publix store and held a powerful pray-in in the produce aisle!

Click here for a photo report from their visit. And be sure to check back again for more as the members of the delegation return home and share their experience.

Meanwhile, here’s a quick excerpt from an article on the visit, “Rabbis pray for humane work conditions for tomato farmers,” JTA New Service, 9/15/22:

“NEW YORK (JTA) — Rabbis for Human Rights-North America took part in a prayer event in a Florida Publix supermarket to help ensure the safety of tomatoes pickers.

Fifteen rabbis and two rabbinical students took part in the prayer circle Thursday in Naples urging Publix to sign the Fair Food Agreement, a contract that guarantees that tomato pickers are working in an environment with a zero-tolerance policy for trafficking and slavery, sexual assault and child labor. It also would raise their wages by a penny per pound of tomatoes.

Publix has refused repeatedly to sign the agreement or meet with workers…

… ‘As rabbis, we are called upon to be moral leaders,’ said Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster, the director of North American programs for Rabbis for Human Rights-North America. ‘We cannot stand idly by as the workers who pick our tomatoes suffer some of the worst human rights abuses in America.’ ” read more

See the Rabbis for Human Rights-North America press release on the visit here.