December 31, 2011
Should auld acquaintance be forgot...
Mark Bittman, Gourmet Magazine give end of the year tips of the hat to CIW;
Two holiday-themed videos close out 2011 in the Campaign for Fair Food...
The year 2011 in the Campaign for Fair Food may ultimately be known as the year the CIW caught the attention of the food movement, with high profile articles and appearances giving farmworkers an important new voice - and the issue of human rights an important new place -- in the growing debate over how we produce and sell food in this country.
But that didn't make it any less of a surprise to see two of the food world's most important voices give the CIW prominent mention in their end-of-the-year lists of food organizations to support in 2012.
In an article entitled "10 Exceptional Food-Related Charities," (12/14/11), Gourmet Magazine included the CIW in a list including such august organizations as the United States Fund for UNICEF and the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Here's the excerpt on the CIW:
"Coalition of Immokalee Workers A group like the CIW is a good reminder that there can be hardship at both ends of the food-supply chain—in getting enough food to eat and in growing it. Readers of Barry Estabrook, author of Tomatoland and contributor to Gourmet Live, will already be well acquainted with this community-based farm workers’ organization and its outsize accomplishments. From its home in southern Florida—source of winter tomatoes and other crops for much of the nation—the CIW has won landmark agreements with industry and major fast-food chains to significantly improve worker wages and conditions. The coming year’s challenge: widely implementing the CIW’s Fair Food Code of Conduct in the fields. What the group’s site doesn’t yet make obvious is that it is a registered 501(c)(3) charity and that donations are tax-deductible; give it time—right now, it’s busy putting an admirable 83% of its funds into programs and only 3% into fund-raising." read more |
Meanwhile, in an article entitled "Food Gifts that Matter," (12/21/11), Mark Bittman shared his own list with his extensive readership, writing, "if you’re thinking about making a donation this year to brighten the national or global food landscape, here’s a list of organizations where your gifts will be well spent." His mention of the CIW reads:
"Coalition of Immokalee Workers: Fights for fair wages, better treatment, better housing and greater respect for low-wage immigrant farm workers in Florida. CIW also works for stronger laws and enforcement protecting workers’ rights and the right to organize." read more |
Finally, Fair Food activists were far from silent this holiday season, and we leave you in these last days of 2011 with links to two holiday-themed videos, one from Philadelphia drawing links between the Jewish harvest festival tradition of Sukkot and the Campaign for Fair Food, the other a bit of traditional caroling fun from the Rio Grande Valley in Texas:
We hope you and all those you love have a very happy new year, and we look forward to working together in 2012 for still more historic advances in the movement for Fair Food.
December 23, 2011
Christmas in Immokalee is a time for reflection...
 |
CIW members act out the Nativity scene at this past Wednesday's community meeting in Immokalee. The re-enactment is an annual event, designed in the tradition of popular theater to provoke reflection on the meaning of Christ's birth into poverty. |
Today we received an email entitled "Reflections from Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon on Why Christians Should Be Particularly Aware of Poverty and Justice Issues at Christmastime." It included the text of his comments from earlier this month at the Faithful Budget Prayer Vigil on Capitol Hill. We want to begin this post today by sharing an extended excerpt of his comments:
What Christians confess and celebrate in this season is that “God [the Word] became flesh and lived among us” (John 1:14). The implications of this are so staggering that I fear we, Christians, often miss them. If we look for God only in spiritual things, if we speak about God’s presence as something that is only in our hearts, if we teach that God’s promise has only to do with heaven, then we may overlook God altogether. Because the God we know and worship was born in a cave where animals were kept—the child of poor, Jewish peasants—threatened by a king who saw in him the seed of political revolution (Luke 2:1-20; Matthew 2:1-18). “Christmas,” writes theologian Shirley Guthrie, “is the story of the radical invasion of God into the kind of real world where we live all year long—a world where there is political unrest and injustice, poverty, hatred, jealousy, and both the fear and longing that things could be different.”... ... That’s why a religion that celebrates incarnation cannot remain aloof from political oppression or economic injustice or environmental destruction. God, Christians believe, became flesh, the ultimate act of solidarity with this world in all its political, economic, and ecological messiness. And that’s why the church, as the primary instrument of God’s purpose for Christians, is called to promote social transformation toward the day when God’s will for abundant life is realized on earth as it is in heaven. Theologically speaking, re-enactments of the Nativity should not take place inside our sanctuaries, but outside the doors of the church, in the midst of the everyday world where “the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Colossians 1:19). To put it simply and bluntly: A church that is indifferent to worldly struggles, indifferent to the plight of the poor, is following its own agenda, not God’s." |
"I realize that we are an interfaith campaign, but I thought it might be appropriate if I said a brief word about the Christian holiday of Christmas, and why I believe it compels Christians to be here for this vigil.The idea of the Nativity re-enactment taking place "outside the doors of the church, in the midst of the everyday world," is something CIW members have been doing for years in Immokalee, and the message of the theater is decidedly one of social transformation.
This year was no different, and we thought we'd share with you another email -- this one written by an intern working in Immokalee to her grandmother to convey her thoughts after watching the theater and the reflection that followed -- as a way to, in a small measure, share the Immokalee Christmas experience with you during this very special time of year:
Tonight the Coalition staff acted out the story of Jesus' birth—except Version 1 of the story (right) birthed Jesus into a rich family (father in leather jacket, fake mustache, toupee, silver staff, hilarious. Baby Jesus wearing gold wrapping paper and being rolled around in a roll-y chair full of sparkles. Mother Mary dressed in sequins. Lots of laughter). Version 2 (picture at top of post) was more accurate: A pregnant Mary, draped in lackluster garments, rides a donkey—who is just another worker costumed in sheets "back stage" (aka around the corner). Baby Jesus was another worker wearing a white sheet wrapped like a diaper, released from beneath a low lit table. After all the laughter subsided, two seasoned organizers, Lucas and Gerardo, started asking the 50-person audience questions: Did Jesus come from a rich family, or a poor one? Would Jesus have been so prophetic if he’d been rich? What noble journey did he embark on? What noble journey are we on, sacrificing for our families far away to support them? If Jesus had been born in this country, where would’ve he been born: Naples or Immokalee? Is Jesus born again every Christmas? Or is he born again in our hearts, renewing our hope to continue our struggle? Why is our faith important? And what is faith without action? Is God going to answer to our plight? Or will he only do so once we are doing for ourselves?" |
"I just came back from a weekly workers meeting, one of the richest parts about being here. It's "popular education" in action: no theory, no lofty words, just humans doing human things that make sense to any person. Each year Christians around the world retell the story of their Savior’s birth, how a poor, rural family was forced to travel to Bethlehem so the Emperor could count them. And there, far from home, Mary gave birth to a son and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.
May this good news bring us all hope, courage and joy this holiday season.
