Immokalee to host summit with allies across Fair Food network. Join us!
Save the date: This September 22 – 25, the Alliance for Fair Food, in conjunction with the CIW, is hosting a Wendy’s Boycott Summit here in Immokalee, at the very heart of the Fair Food Nation. And you are invited!
The year ahead in the Campaign for Fair Food will be a pivotal one: For only the second time in the campaign’s 15-year history, farmworkers have called for a national boycott of one of the multi-billion dollar corporations that is refusing to join the Fair Food Program. The boycott was necessitated by Wendy’s unconscionable decision to not only reject the Fair Food Program when all of its major competitors had already joined, but to actually abandon the Florida tomato industry altogether following the FFP’s implementation, shifting its tomato purchases from Florida to Mexico, where human rights violations are endemic and go largely unchecked.
We have waged a national boycott before, and won. And we will win again.
But a boycott is no casual endeavor. We will need to draw on the full depth and breadth of the consumer ally network — from students to people of faith, from Maine to California — to muster the power necessary to prevail. September’s Wendy’s Boycott Summit, a gathering of allies from every corner of the Fair Food Nation, will be a critical moment to lay the groundwork for the year ahead.
Here’s the full announcement from Alliance for Fair Food website:
As a movement allying with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, we find ourselves at a crossroads: With human rights for farmworkers gaining ground in tomato fields up the East Coast and in Florida strawberries and bell peppers, the CIW has launched a boycott of Wendy’s in order to strengthen and expand all we have fought for and won together, with the tremendous leadership of the CIW.
At the same time, we are in merely the second year of the existence as the Alliance for Fair Food, an organization seeking to best channel resources to support and connect the ally network to the farmworker-led movement in Immokalee. From Seattle to Miami, from the RGV to NYC, we’re shifting and growing as a network, just as the CIW grows and shifts, as well — and together we continue to dream of and work towards realities of justice and dignity for all in the fields and far beyond. In a society where corporations hold such massive power — not only in the agricultural industry, but in countless arenas — victory in the Wendy’s boycott is essential. And it is not a question of if, but of when.
Hundreds upon hundreds of Fair Food supporters joining the Workers’ Voice Tour in a march through Columbus Ohio
At this crossroads, we’ve been thinking about how we can best equip ourselves as a movement to win the boycott against Wendy’s and fortify ourselves for the long-run organizing that is sure to follow. For this reason, we’ve decided to call together a Wendy’s Boycott Summit here in Immokalee — a long weekend of working together with CIW to develop short-term and long-term strategy in the national Wendy’s Boycott, to build our skills and leadership, and to grow our connection as a community to the CIW and with each other before we fan out across the country again.
This Summit will build off of the Student/Farmworker Alliance’s annual tradition of holding a fall student and youth Encuentro (and will happen in its stead just this year). The Summit will bring together people from every corner of our network — students and youth, worker-led and grassroots organizations, people of faith, Fair Food Groups, and people from many walks of life. This weekend is for anyone and everyone who plans to actively build support for the Wendy’s boycott in their communities!
If you’re interested in attending the Wendy’s Boycott Summit, please fill out an application — or pass it along to someone who would like to attend. We’ll be sending more information in the coming days — but for now, save the date!
We are so excited to welcome you to the heart of the Campaign for Fair Food.
What: Alliance for Fair Food Wendy’s Boycott Summit Where: Immokalee, Florida When: September 22-25, 2016 Submit your application!
