RELIGIOUS SUPPORT FOR FAIR FOOD CONTINUES TO GROW!

Great news keeps rolling in from religious allies across the country. Members of ALEPH, the Alliance for Jewish Renewal, have joined their voices to the growing chorus of emails urging McDonald’s to work with the CIW to improve wages and working conditions in the fields. Other ALEPH members are educating their synagogues about the CIW’s campaign and sending postcards far and wide.

Meanwhile, today in Immokalee, the CIW hosted a visit from Bishop Timothy W. Whitaker (left, middle) of the Florida Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. Bishop Whitaker oversees 745 Methodist churches and nearly 325,000 Methodists in all of Florida.

He gave a very warm message of solidarity on the CIW’s community radio station Radio Conciencia (on right, with Francisca Cortez of the CIW), relating how he came to learn about farm labor conditions, the CIW’s work to improve those conditions, and how Florida Methodists can support the CIW’s struggle. Bishop Whitaker told of how he came from Virginia’s Eastern Shore and has seen tomato pickers working there and how hard the work is, and how that experience gave him a particular interest in improving conditions for tomato pickers up and down the East Cost. The United Methodist Church endorsed the Taco Bell boycott.

And, of course, don’t forget about the Sojourners Magazine E-Action Alert, where you can send a strong message to McD’s CEO Jim Skinner telling him to work with the CIW now for fair wages and working conditions for the farmworkers who pick tomatoes for McDonald’s. If you haven’t sent your email yet, do it now