Many years ago, way back in the early days of the Campaign for Fair Food when the Campaign was focused on McDonald’s, and the CIW and its allies logged months at a time organizing in Chicago, a young woman with the Immokalee crew met a young man living in Chicago.

Side by side they struggled in the hometown of the hamburger giant, putting it all on the line in the name of Fair Food. For the young man, Hector Rivera (pictured here above), that included dressing up as Ronald McDonald’s justice-minded twin, Rolando the Clown, during Chicago’s Thanksgiving Day parade in order to hand out flyers among parade goers…

… while for the young woman, Melody Gonzalez (pictured here on the right), it meant staying up all night fighting through nightmarish logistics to pull off the huge, hastily thrown, and unforgettable victory party at Chicago’s House of Blues.

The McDonald’s Campaign was a grueling, hard-fought victory that propelled the fight for Fair Food on to the success that it has achieved today, but somehow in the heat of that epic battle a new love was born. Melody and Hec found each other and formed a bond that would not be broken.

And since that time their love has only continued to grow, until this past weekend those two young people got married in Corona, California, in the most beautiful wedding you will ever see.

Among those who gathered there were dozens of other young people who, like the bride and groom, are longtime, dedicated activists in the fight for Fair Food.

So, it was hardly a surprise when many of those who traveled to Corona to celebrate Melody and Hec’s marriage decided — a little worse for the wear, but still game for action — to stage an impromptu protest at the nearby Santa Ana Trader Joe’s the next day.

The protest included dialogue between the CIW delegation, which had traveled to California for the week-long Trader Joe’s Truth Tour, and the store manager. This, of course, is more than we can say for Trader Joe’s itself, whose corporate representatives have yet to enter into a meaningful dialogue with the CIW to discuss ways to work together in support of the Fair Food principles.

But most importantly, the protest included countless one-on-one conversations between Trader Joe’s consumers and veteran Campaign for Fair Food organizers…

… who shared the history of exploitation behind Florida tomatoes, of the Campaign for Fair Food and the process underway to end that exploitation, and of Trader Joe’s refusal to do what nine other billion-dollar retail food companies have done and join in partnership with the CIW to advance the principles of Fair Food.