Check out the must-see video from Day 3!

CIW's Nely Rodriguez (VIDEO): "The bandana doesn't only represent protection, but for many women it also represents sexual harassment, abuse, and violence, and those same bandanas hold for many of us our tears and suffering... And with these bandanas, we are creating a circle of hope."

Sunday, March 10th, saw the culmination of the 3-day Farmworker Freedom Festival in Palm Beach with a powerful ceremony designed to bring the Fair Food Nation's message of hope home to Wendy's Board Chair Nelson Peltz.  Farmworkers, their families and their allies gathered in a gorgeous park across the street from Peltz's beachside mansion, where they shared, framed by giant banyan trees, the hopes of the farmworker community for a future of partnership with Wendy's -- a partnership to empower workers themselves to monitor and enforce their own human rights through the expansion of the Fair Food Program to Wendy's produce suppliers. 

We have captured the images and words of that moving ceremony in a short video that we are happy to be able to share with you today:

We have also prepared a photo gallery from Day 3 for another angle on a spectacular finish to the first-ever Farmworker Freedom Fest:

The final day of the festival saw Esperanza complete her mission to convey the humanity and hopes of farmworkers across the country seeking an end to generations of unconscionable exploitation and abuse in the fields.  Her grace and kind smile came to life over the course of the three days in Palm Beach, drawing visitors to Bradley Park and passers-by in the streets to her side like a magnet, children and adults alike, to hold her hand or offer a warm embrace.  

Farmworkers with the CIW and their families gather around Esperanza following their Pilgrimage of Hope on Day 3 of the Farmworker Freedom Festival.

Her gracious ambassadorship stood in stark contrast to the cold, mechanical denials of responsibility from Wendy's communications department, whose spokespeople had the thankless task of defending the indefensible -- Wendy's stubborn insistence to stand alone among fast-food industry leaders against the one human rights program universally recognized for its success in fighting violence, wage theft, sexual abuse, and forced labor in the US agricultural industry. 

Farmworkers and consumers view an exhibit documenting “A Day in the Life of the Fair Food Program” as part of the CIW’s mobile Modern-day Slavery Museum in Bradley Park.

Day 3 brought an end to an extraordinary celebration of farmworker culture and human rights progress, but not to the campaign to bring the last fast-food holdout out of the past -- where empty claims of corporate social responsibility backed by for-profit certification schemes were sufficient to meet consumers' demands -- and into the 21st century, where consumers demand true transparency and social responsibility from the brands they support, a level of accountability only possible when workers themselves are empowered to monitor and enforce their own rights, backed by the purchasing power of the brands at the top of the supply chain. 

And as the campaign continues, the coverage of the first-ever Farmworker Freedom Festival continues to come out in outlets both local and national. Check back soon for our big media round-up from the three days of action in the heart of Palm Beach, and for our final reflection on what was truly a unique moment in the CIW's 30-year struggle for dignity, respect, and a fair wage for the women and men who harvest the food that nourishes us.

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Day 2 of Farmworker Freedom Festival: Consciousness + CULTURE = Change!

March 11, 2024

Longtime member of CIW family and artist/activist extraordinaire, Olmeca, after receiving first-ever CIW Artist of Conscience Award: “CIW doesn’t just see the long-road, CIW is the long-road!” Esperanza, the CIW’s 15-ft tall puppet representing the hopes of all farmworkers for a more humane agricultural industry, continued her sojourn in Palm Beach on Saturday, Day 2 of the Farmworker Freedom Festival, where she was joined by hundreds of workers and allies from around the state for a jam-packed day of cultural action and reflection.  Streaming into town in buses and caravans from Tampa, Miami, Homestead, and Gainesville, the Fair Food Nation made its […]

Farmworker Freedom Festival lands in the heart of Palm Beach with message of “Esperanza” for Fair Food future!

March 9, 2024

Day One of Farmworker Freedom Festival a big hit in the streets of historic Palm Beach. Miami Herald: “Her name is Esperanza, or hope, because we hope for a better world,” said Lupe Gonzalo, a leader of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. “A world where we are all treated with dignity and respect as human beings.” Day One of the CIW’s first-ever Farmworker Freedom Festival kicked off with a bang yesterday as the farmworker community of Immokalee unveiled its new, 15-ft tall, animated farmworker puppet and turned heads throughout the manicured, mansion-lined, streets of Palm Beach, Florida, home to business and […]

4 Ways to support the upcoming Farmworker Freedom Festival!

March 6, 2024

1) COME TO THE FESTIVAL! If you’re in Florida, register today to join farmworkers and their allies for three days of celebrating farmworkers’ human rights and the Fair Food Program 2) DONATE: If you’re unable to participate in person, you can join our campaign to raise funds for the festival’s needs 3) SEND A SOLIDARITY MESSAGE: Write a message or send a video of solidarity to the farmworkers 4) DELIVER A LETTER TO YOUR LOCAL FAIR FOOD HOLDOUTS: Kroger, Wendy’s, and Publix We are less than one week away from the first-ever Farmworker Freedom Festival, taking place from March 8-10 in Palm […]

Release: First-ever Farmworker Freedom Festival to celebrate human rights gains of the Fair Food Program, call on corporate holdout Wendy’s to join

February 28, 2024

A 3-day celebration of farmworker culture and fundamental human rights featuring the CIW’s mobile Modern-day Slavery Museum, a benefit concert, and original theater and art, including a two-story tall farmworker puppet named Esperanza giving voice to the country’s 1.5 million farmworkers in their ongoing fight for fundamental human rights Press and Media opportunities: March 8, 1 PM – 340 S County Rd, Palm Beach — Farmworker rally through Palm Beach with two-story tall puppet, Esperanza; March 9, Primary Festival Day, 10 AM – 7 PM – Bradley Park, Palm Beach – Benefit concert featuring Malacates Trebol Shop, Olmeca, Rara Lakay, […]

Washington Post heralds Fair Food Program’s groundbreaking heat illness prevention standards!

February 19, 2024

Washington Post, “These farmworkers created America’s strongest workplace heat rules,” 2/17/24: * “Leonel Pérez remembers when conditions on tomato farms were very different. He started picking tomatoes when he was 20. Summers were hot and humid. Workers sometimes fainted or ended up in the hospital with heatstroke.  But even when the heat reached dangerous levels, Pérez said he and his co-workers couldn’t always take basic steps to protect themselves. “You couldn’t just say, ‘I’m going to stop and drink water,’” Pérez, now 35, said. “You’d ask [the boss] for water and they’d say, ‘Don’t worry, it’s going to rain soon. […]

Support the Farmworker Freedom Festival today!

February 14, 2024

“There is a huge difference now since we have started this season, the conditions here are really improving. For example, the supervisors used to get angry, and now they behave respectfully towards us [the workers]. Now we can make a complaint without fear of retaliation, and they [the supervisors] treat us well and as if we are all equals, without preference for one over the other. Now I feel happy to harvest here.” – Worker on a FFP farm in November of 2014    “Sometimes bosses cross the line and you [The Fair Food Standards Council] all are there to […]

Compass Group and Foodbuy visit Immokalee as the Fair Food Program’s rapid expansion continues

February 8, 2024

“As a long-standing participating buyer in the Fair Food Program since 2009, Compass Group actively supports Fair Food Program in their goal to expand certification to more growers across the industry.” “While this program started in the tomato fields of Florida, through the expansion of Fair Food Program certification as it reaches and grows to new states and countries of origin, nothing is out of scope!” Representatives from Compass Group USA and its supply chain partner Foodbuy kicked off the new year with a visit to Immokalee, FL, the farmworker community where the Presidential Medal-winning Fair Food Program was born, […]

“We needed to create a new form of power.“ Watch CIW Co-Founder Lucas Benitez speak on human rights revolution that began in Immokalee

February 1, 2024

CIW’s Lucas Benitez: “I arrived ready to go into the field and to perform that labor, but what I was not prepared for was facing constant violations of my human rights in the process.” “We, as workers, were able to create real consequences where before there existed none.” To mark the 75th anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, CIW co-founder Lucas Benitez gave a powerful speech at the Institute for Human Rights and Business last month in New York.  The speech shed light on the dawn of a human rights revolution underway in low-wage industries across […]

Read how farmworkers launched the historic Fair Food Program in new Food, Inc. 2 Book

January 30, 2024

Newly released book — including chapters from Eric Schlosser, Michael Pollan, and Senator Cory Booker — to accompany spring release of sequel to Oscar-nominated, Emmy Award-winning documentary Food, Inc. CIW: “Through the unrelenting struggle and sacrifice of tens of thousands of workers and their consumer allies, the CIW’s successful efforts have transformed an industry once dubbed ‘ground zero for modern-​day slavery’ by federal prosecutors into what one expert called ‘The best working environment in American agriculture’ on the front page of the New York Times…” “… Refusing to be trapped by poverty and powerlessness, they organized in their own community and […]

Grocery giant and Fair Food holdout Kroger linked to yet another modern slavery ring

January 22, 2024

Investigation from The Lever: “Multibillion-dollar retail giant Kroger Company defended its proposed takeover of rival Albertsons Companies, Inc. by highlighting its partnership with a blueberry grower that hired a labor contractor accused of orchestrating one of the largest human trafficking rings in modern U.S. history.” “Kroger has not joined the Fair Food Program, and refused to let its shareholders vote on the Domini proposal.” Lupe Gonzalo, CIW staff member and farmworker: “As long as there aren’t protections for workers, and workers are afraid to speak up, there are most likely going to be cases of forced labor.” Kroger, one of […]