Faith leaders promise to join farmworkers in the streets of New York next month for the big Follow the Money March!…

The National Farm Worker Ministry, a longtime CIW ally that amasses the power of 37 faith denominations and organizations together to pursue justice for farmworkers, brought their board of directors to Immokalee to visit the CIW, learn firsthand about the unprecedented advances of the Fair Food Program, and plan for next month’s Follow the Money Wendy’s Boycott March.  

From Episcopal Church to the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, from the Society of the Sacred Heart to the Alliance of Baptists, these 20 faith leaders offered the depth of their Christian traditions and the breadth of their millions-strong constituencies into the ever-growing movement for Fair Food.

During the visit these NFWM leaders had the opportunity to hear from Judge Laura Safer Espinoza, Executive Director of the Fair Food Standards Council, about how the Fair Food Program has grown over the last eight years, eradicating generations of abuse and inaugurating a new history of human rights for tens of thousands of farmworkers laboring on farms in seven states along the Eastern Seaboard.  The packed agenda also included a strategic exchange on how the NFWM could best engage its national network of faith communities in the Wendy’s Boycott, with the increasing focus on the investment funds behind Wendy’s reflected in next month’s Follow the Money March. 

The gains in human rights achieved by the FFP stand in stark contrast to the risks faced by farmworkers harvesting in Wendy’s supply chain given the industry’s longstanding patterns of abuse that have been amply documented in greenhouses as well as fields.  “We are prepared to go the distance with you,” pledged Executive Director Julie Taylor, “to lift our voices and march by your side until Wendy’s signs.”

And so, as planning for the march continued so did the spirit of joy that comes when partners work together for good.  Hasta Nueva York, NFWM!