[hupso_hide][hupso title=”Immokalee prepares for #2014Encuentro! Students & youth from #FairFoodNation make plans for @Wendys this fall…” url=”https://ciw-online.org/blog/2014/08/encuentro/”]

With the annual Student/Farmworker Alliance “Encuentro” just around the corner, student and youth leaders of the Fair Food Nation train their sights on Wendy’s with an echo of the seminal “Boot the Bell” campus-based movement… 

It’s that time of year again, as the first cool breezes of fall break months of summer heat and students across the country prepare for the new school year ahead.  Of course, in Immokalee, preparing for the new school year can only mean one thing: the Student/Farmworker Alliance Encuentro is coming!  Every year at this time, dozens of students and young people from New York to California travel to Immokalee to spend several days together meeting with CIW members to learn about the history of Immokalee’s struggle for human rights and the achievements of the Campaign for Fair Food, sharing their own experiences and insights to sharpen their individual organizing skills, and building a collective plan of action for the coming season of the Campaign for Fair Food on their campuses and communities across the country.  

This year is no different, though there is one element to this year’s planning that is new — the “Boot the Braids” campaign focusing on Wendy’s restaurants on and near campuses.  Over the summer, the SFA launched a Boot the Braids website to act as campaign headquarters for the upcoming season, providing students access to information, updates, and resources as they organize on campus.  The site also houses the SFA’s organizational endorsement letter addressed to Wendy’s CEO Emil Brolick, which has been signed by a over twenty organizations (including United Students Against Sweatshops, Real Food Challenge, and the Ohio Student Association) representing thousands of young people around the country (an earlier version of the letter was delivered by an OSU student during the Wendy’s shareholder meeting in May). 

For more on this year’s Encuentro, here’s a quick word directly from the SFA itself, including a call for anyone who can to pitch in an help bring students to Immokalee through a much-needed travel scholarship fund:

In just under two weeks, we’ll once again be welcoming some of the Fair Food Nation’s most brilliant, creative young people down to Immokalee for the annual SFA Encuentro. Traditionally, the Encuentro has taken its shape based on a particular campaign moment, and this year will be no different: we’re zeroing in on Boot the Braids!

We’re particularly enthusiastic to have students from a number of Wendy’s campuses – Ohio State, Temple, the University of Florida – as well as students at non-Wendy’s schools gearing up for Boot the Braids solidarity campaigns. Long-time ally organizations like Real Food Challenge (RFC) and United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) are also sending representatives excited to further fortify our partnership and integrate Boot the Braids more deeply into their respective networks.  

There are many things in store for this year’s participants. During skill-building sessions, SFAers will hone their organizing acumen with concrete tools that can be applied to the Campaign: crafting press strategies for a protest, building campus coalitions, and harnessing the power of social media. Together we’ll delve into deconstructing Wendy’s marketing campaigns and develop a strategy to ensure that millennials are recognized as more than just a profitable demographic.  We’ll work in small groups to build a nuts-and-bolts action plan, campus-by-campus, and then reconvene to envision powerful, coordinated actions for the upcoming semester.

On Friday evening, Encuentro goers will welcome the Food Chains crew for a special advanced screening of the film, followed by reflection and discussion. And on Saturday, we’ll be treading on tried-and-true ground: a good old-fashioned action outside the local Wendy’s before sitting down to break break with members of the CIW.

As always, we look forward to a weekend that strengthens our relationships as a network and is the spark to set the upcoming year ablaze with action. Until Wendy’s joins the Fair Food Program, students are ready to #BootTheBraids!

***We are also raising $2,000 to fund travel scholarships for students who wouldn’t otherwise be able to attend the Encuentro. To donate, please visit our Indiegogo page.***

The Fair Food Program — recognized on the front page of the New York Times as “the best workplace monitoring program” in the US today — wouldn’t exist if it hadn’t been for the leadership of students and youth in the Campaign for Fair Food since the campaign was launched in 2001.  The transformation of the Florida tomato industry “from the worst to the best” workplace in the US agricultural industry wouldn’t have happened, and tens of thousands of workers wouldn’t have seen the real, measurable changes in their lives that they have since 2010 — including $15 million in Fair Food Premiums going to improve farmworker wages, the elimination of forced labor, and the vast reduction of longstanding abuses from sexual harassment to violence and wage theft — if it weren’t for the vision and commitment of young people across the country.  

This year’s Encuentro will help shape the plans for student action in the Campaign for Fair Food for the year ahead, putting the focus squarely on Wendy’s and the hamburger giant’s unconscionable refusal to step up to the human rights standards adopted already by all its major competitors.  If you’re thinking of coming, don’t miss it!  And if you can help make it possible for others to come who might not have the funds for the trip to Immokalee, be sure to click here.