Coming Soon: Student/Farmworker Alliance’s 2015 Annual Encuentro!

CFF15-4_wScores of students, young people to gather in Immokalee, develop strategy for Publix, Wendy’s campaigns…

Each fall, the Campaign for Fair Food takes off with a burst of renewed energy thanks to an annual Immokalee tradition:  The Student/Farmworker Alliance Encuentro!  An action-packed weekend of strategizing and learning for students and youth from all over the country, the Encuentro this year is set for September 10-13.  Check out this year’s invitation, straight from the SFA itself:

On September 10-13, SFA is continuing the decade-long Encuentro tradition by bringing together brilliant SFAers – past, present and future – to lay down some solid groundwork for the upcoming year: finding new, creative ways to strengthen the SFA network and to continue fighting alongside farmworkers against corporations that believe they have no responsibility in ensuring human rights for farmworkers in their supply chain.

Here’s an inside scoop of what to expect at this year’s gathering:

  • Launching back-to-school escalation plans around the Wendy’s student boycott
  • Strategizing new ways to continue building the Publix campaign 
  • Building strength and solidarity across grassroots movements for justice
  • Sustaining the future of SFA’s organizing through skill-building workshops and other development tools… read more

Since the earliest days of the Campaign for Fair Food, students and young people have brought their creativity, energy, and passion to the table, whether by mobilizing to march hundreds of miles alongside Florida farmworkers or by inviting the CIW into their own classrooms and communities.  Now 15 years into the Campaign for Fair Food, farmworkers have won dignity, respect and fair wages in the fields through the Fair Food Program — truly incredible changes would never have been more than a dream without the dedication and unwavering support of generations of students and youth.  And now, as we break new ground with expansion of the Fair Food Program into new states and new crops this year, the student movement in support of farm labor justice has never been stronger.

Encuentro_2013_5237Indeed, with classes just around the corner, the CIW community center is buzzing with ideas for the coming year in the Campaign for Fair Food, starting with the Encuentro.  First up on the fall calendar: the “Schooling Wendy’s” National Week of Action, set for September 27 – October 4 — and it isn’t only for students, but rather for the whole of the Fair Food Nation!  So stay tuned for more details in the weeks to come, and stay in touch with SFA at organize (at) sfalliance.org to find out what’s happening in your city.

To close, we couldn’t help but share the Encuentro promotional video, featuring some of Immokalee’s best acting talent: