In the pews, in the streets, and on campus with the Slavery Museum, people learn about and take action for Fair Food…
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| Students and faculty from the University of South Florida in Tampa visit the Modern-Day Slavery Museum during its stay on campus last week and receive a tour from CIW members Oscar Otzoy and Leonel Perez. |
Last week we told you about Fair Food activists in the Greater Boston area mobilizing for the big march on Stop & Shop this Feb. 27th.
But today’s update belongs to Southwest Florida, where people across the region are talking about Publix, the Campaign for Fair Food, and getting ready to hit the streets in Tampa this March 4th and 5th for the culmination of the CIW’s “Do the Right Thing Tour”!
Organizing efforts are going especially strong on university campuses, in places of worship, and at community gatherings throughout the coastal communities that run from Sarasota through St. Petersburg and up to Tampa.
For a sense of the growing discussion taking place in the lead up to the tour (now just three weeks away!), below is an excerpt from a sermon given earlier this morning by the Rev. Clay Thomas of First Presbyterian Church in Sarasota, preaching on Isaiah 58 which calls on believers “to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free“:
| “For the past two years, CIW and their partners have been pleading with Publix to join other corporations in their struggle for justice. To break the yoke. Many of you have written letters and spoken to your local Publix manager. For two years, Publix has been silent and unwilling to even sit down with farm workers.
Now I know this gets a little sensitive. Publix does a lot of great things. Their headquarters are here in Florida. And I love all the buy one get one frees. Shopping is a pleasure at Publix. It’s pleasure when I get fresh bread from the bakery. And they give my son and daughter a cookie. It’s a pleasure when I see their Greenwise coffee that boasts of fair trade and farmworkers’ rights. But when I get to the fruits and vegetables, and I see the bin of tomatoes it is no longer a pleasure. I wonder why I spend thousands a year at a grocery store that does not believe farm workers deserve rights. That they do not even deserve a hearing. It’s not their problem. Recently a Publix community relations manager said, “We don’t have any plans to sit down with the CIW.” … He added, “If there are some atrocities going on, it’s not our business.” Let that soak in. Atrocities—not our business. Are atrocities our business? Is human dignity the church’s business? Ponder with me the parable of the Good Samaritan. A man was on the way from Immokalee to a tomato field. He was attacked, beaten, stripped of his clothes and left half dead. A priest happened to going down the same road and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side of the road—the beaten man was none of his business. A Levite sees the man, and he too walked by on the other side—the abused was none of his business. O but the Samaritan…” |
That sermon — and dozens of other community conversations like it over the past week — moved over 130 people to gather outside a Sarasota Publix store this afternoon for a spirited protest, bringing together the many diverse communities coalescing behind the call for Fair Food. Here’s a brief photo report from today’s action:
 This sign left no doubt as to the correct answer to the pastor’s question, and summed up the protesters’ frustration with Florida’s biggest grocer. |
 The crowd at today’s protest included a strong and vocal contingent of students from several area schools, chief among them Sarasota’s own New College (with a crew of nearly 50 turning out for the picket, and more to come for the March 5th march in Tampa!). |
 The students were joined by local faith allies, including the Reverend Tricia Dillon Thomas (left) of the Peace Presbyterian Church and many more parishioners of area churches who arrived at the protest straight from the pews… |
 … to march in solidarity with workers from Immokalee, who traveled two hours north in a caravan of dozens of CIW members and their families. |
 And they all came together around a single message: It’s time, Publix, to do the right thing! |
 The protest wrapped up with a promise that we would all gather again on the first weekend of March in the streets of Tampa for a massive march on Publix to demand long overdue justice from the supermarket giant. |
Next up: New York City makes itself heard in the ramp up to the Do the Right Thing Tour!