Girl Scouts of Gulf Coast Florida tour CIW Slavery Museum at conference against human trafficking…

… and step up to the plate in the battle
to end forced labor!

This past Saturday, the Girl Scout Council representing 10 counties across Southwest and Central Florida held a gathering in Sarasota for “an afternoon of community education and empowerment as we raise awareness of the growing epidemic of domestic human trafficking.” The CIW was invited to bring the mobile Modern-Day Slavery Museum to the “Girls Protecting Girls Against Human Trafficking” event, and from all accounts the exchange between farmworkers from Immokalee and the young leaders gathered there was a huge success.

Here’s a report from the Sarasota Fast for Fair Food advance team that staffed the Museum for the conference:

“At the invitation of the Girl Scouts of Gulfcoast Florida — which serves more than 10,000 girls throughout ten Florida counties — the CIW rolled out the slavery museum again for a special conference about human trafficking at the Council headquarters. The event aimed to “empower girls and our community to take action” to eliminate forced labor. Over the course of the day, numerous girls and troop leaders expressed enthusiastic interest in becoming involved in the Campaign for Fair Food, taking letters to deliver to Publix managers as well as stacks of postcards to get signed and mail to the company HQ in Lakeland. Several are now also planning troop visits to Immokalee in the coming months to learn more about ways to take action in getting Publix to stop its excuses and to actually take a stand against farmworker abuse, while others will head to Lakeland next month to support fasting farmworkers. Many girls also gathered CIW literature for their efforts in pursuing the Harvest Award, “a prestigious new leadership award” that encourages girls to “execute a plan by advocating to influence a food policy,” which means for many young cookie vendors using their powers of persuasion with local Publix managers in order to urge the grocery giant to make the same commitment against exploitation in their tomato supply chains, as Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s have.”

Check out the very latest in merit badge fashion in the photo above (the round blue pin that made its way onto this scout’s vest!). With each day that passes, support for the Campaign for Fair Food, and for the demand that Publix do its part to advance farmworkers’ rights, just keeps growing — and, in this case, growing into the future with this great group of tomorrow’s leaders!