Across the United States (and beyond!), new farms are lining up to join the Fair Food Program. What began as a vision to protect farmworkers in Immokalee, Florida, has expanded not only to cover the vast majority of tomato harvesters in the CIW’s home state, but also workers on farms from New Jersey to California.
As new growers join the Fair Food Program, they often bring a new crop into the Program with them, signaling to farmworkers across the world that the FFP’s enhanced security, pay, and power are always expanding and within their reach, too.
Today we wanted to highlight the growing variety of produce covered by the Fair Food Program, and to ask for your help to bring more farms, crops, and farmworkers into the Presidential Medal-winning human rights program.
We are looking to raise $100,000 as part of our “Build the Future,” campaign, and ask that you consider donating to us to further that effort.
For now, read on to hear from our partners about the value the Fair Food Program brings to their farms and businesses.
Peaches and Melons – Rancho Durazno, Colorado
On sexual harassment and abuse, and other forms of abuse on the fields, Gwen Cameron, owner of Rancho Durazno Farms in Colorado, says: “I hope those types of abuses are not happening, but the point is, we don’t know. That’s what [this program] is for.”
Tomato Gazpacho Soup – Soupergirl
Sara Polon, CEO of Soupergirl, the Fair Food Program’s first consumer-packaged goods seller says: “I am proud that our company, Soupergirl, is the first consumer packaged goods firm to obtain a Fair Food certification… We hope that more companies like us join this incredible program. What can you do as a consumer? First, learn about the incredible work that the Fair Food Program is doing, every single day. The FFP has been praised for its unique effectiveness in preventing forced labor, sexual assault, and other horrible violations–by the same law enforcement agencies that prosecute these very offenses. It even received a Presidential Medal from the Obama-Biden administration.” Soupergirl sells tomato gazpacho and gingered sweet potato soup — both made with Fair Food ingredients.
Tulips and Peonies – Whole Foods Market and Bloomia and Araucania Flowers, Virginia/Chile
Bloomia is the largest flower grower on the east coast of the U.S., with operations in Chile that have also recently come under the protection of the Fair Food Program. When Bloomia initially joined the FFP, Erik Brown, Executive Leader of Produce at Whole Foods Market (one of biggest buyers of Bloomia flowers and a leading Participating Buyer in the FFP), had this to say: “We help bring about real, tangible improvements in workers’ lives in our supply chain through our partnership with third party certifiers like the Fair Food Program, with whom we have proudly partnered for over a decade. Whole Foods Market is proud that Bloomia, a longtime partner of ours, has signed on to the Fair Food program as well, making them the first floral supplier to achieve this certification.”
Sweet Potatoes – Happy Dirt Cop-op and Watkins Farm, North Carolina
Watkins Farm, part of a large co-op of organic growers called Happy Dirt, joined the FFP in late 2021, bringing its sweet potatoes into the Program. Happy Dirt CEO Sandi Kronick said: “When it comes to social, environmental, and economic sustainability, there’s not a finish line that you just cross. There is always room to grow and improve, and third-party audit programs like the Fair Food Program help us to continue to look for ways to build upon our sustainability impact and promise.”
Lettuce, Dill and Mint – Hardee Fresh, Florida
Hardee Fresh is the first and only organic vertical garden in the US. Halton Peters, Co-Founder and President of Hardee Fresh, heralded the alignment of values between the farm and the Program upon joining the FFP: “At Hardee Fresh we want to provide the best produce for our customers and the best working conditions and opportunities for advancement for our workers. We want to be the best steward of the environment in the agricultural industry and the best citizen in the communities in which we live and work. Participation in the Fair Food Program furthers our pursuit of our goal and just the most recent expression of our longstanding core beliefs.”
Your donations are helping to build a future of dignity for countless workers. For over 10 years, the Fair Food Program has brought material change — fairer wages and working conditions — to workers not just in Florida’s tomato fields, but in a growing list of states and crops across the country and beyond. Your gift today will help us keep growing that list, and expanding the Fair Food Program’s unique — and desperately needed — protections to tens of thousands of more workers in the months and years ahead.