Protests, press continue as momentum builds in Campaign for Fair Food in lead up to February supermarket action!

Fifth-grade students from Workmen’s Circle Jewish Sunday School — who led more than 100 parents and peers on a march from a Trader Joes to a Stop & Shop in Brookline, MA — give the Stop & Shop manager a piece of their minds, and a much needed lesson on social justice. Read more about the protest here.

Kids picket Stop & Shop in Boston, Denver Fair Food protests at Quiznos HQ; Campus Progress pens two great articles on history of the Campaign…

In an exciting prelude to February’s big Ahold action in Boston, a courageous and spirited group of kids from Boston’s Workmen’s Circle Jewish Sunday School led a crowd of more than 100 on a protest march from a Trader Joes to a Stop & Shop in Brookline in support of the Campaign for Fair Food! You can read an excellent article on the action here.

Also, the folks at Denver Fair Food got in on the action, with the first protest of the new year (January 3rd, to be exact) outside of Quiznos headquarters in downtown Denver. Never ones to sit idly by, the Denver Fair Food committed is turning up the heat on the sandwich giant, demanding that Quiznos join other fast-food industry leaders and work with the CIW for real, verifiable social responsibility. You can read about the protest on the Denver Fair Food blog here.

And finally, don’t miss a fantastic article and timeline on the Campaign for Fair Food published this week by Campus Progress. The piece begins with a powerful recounting of one of the seminal events in the CIW’s early history:

“Long after the sun had set over the tomato fields, a weary but electrified group of farm workers crammed into a small office space in downtown Immokalee, Fla. All of the workers in the room had worked 10- to 12-hour shifts in the fields that day, but their outrage and passion kept them awake on a cold December night in 1997.

Days earlier, a crew leader from a multi-million dollar tomato farm had beaten a young farm worker because he paused to take a sip of water. After his shift, the bruised 16-year-old brought his bloody shirt straight to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a grassroots, community-based organization of approximately 4,500 immigrants (mostly Haitian, Mayan Indian and Latino) fighting for farm worker justice in the fields.

Now, days after the abuse, he found himself surrounded by other, equally enraged CIW members willing to fight against such an injustice, even though he’d never been to a single meeting.

After a failed attempt to discuss the incident with the abusive crew leader, the CIW organized a nighttime march to the crew leader’s house, drawing the attention of approximately 30 Collier County Sheriff’s officers.

About 500 farm workers marched that night in solidarity with the beaten teenager, using his bloodied shirt as a symbolic flag. In the weeks following the protest, the crew leader couldn’t find workers to harvest his crops.

After that night, there was a marked change in the fight for the rights of migrant workers in the Southwest Florida town…” read more

Students and youth are sure to make up a large contingent of the participants in the upcoming actions in Boston and Tampa. To get involved, email meghan@sfalliance.org in Boston and marc@sfalliance.org in Tampa. See you soon!