Each Peach co-founder Emily Friedberg, “We joined the Fair Food Sponsor Program because it’s a tangible way to put our values about food justice into practice, to help build the kind of food system we want to see.”
In the next 10 years, let’s put Fair Food in every neighborhood.
And, BIG NEWS! In these final three days of the Summer Sustainer Drive, Sue and Phil Carter – two of our first-ever Fair Food Sustainers and the Campaign’s most stalwart allies – are committing to match up to $400 in sustaining donations per month!
With ten years of proven protections for human rights now firmly rooted in fields across the East Coast, the Fair Food Program is ripe for new growth. In the last year alone, the Program has expanded to Bloomia, the largest cut flower grower east of the Mississippi, and in just a few weeks, the Fair Food Program’s Education Team will hit the road for Tennessee for a first-ever education session at Smoky Mountain Family Farms.
And that is not the only way in which Fair Food is breaking new ground.
For conscious consumers and farmworkers alike, Fair Food is more than a product, more than a campaign, and more than a program – it is a new food system and culture, one that fundamentally affirms the dignity of farmworkers and reaches, connecting the fields of Florida (and an ever-growing number of new states) to tables across the country in a way that so many food movement marketing campaigns that make that claim can only imagine. A key part of that vision is the Fair Food Sponsor Program, an innovative form of partnership between the CIW, co-ops, and smaller independent grocers across the country that is bringing the message of Fair Food directly into communities of conscious consumers. The Sponsor program has two key components: consumer education and an annual contribution that supports both farmworkers’ economic security via the Fair Food bonus and the critical third-party monitoring work of the Fair Food Standards Council.
The Fair Food Sponsor Program is just getting started, and promises to more deeply root Fair Food in our communities. In the next ten years, we are working to bring the Sponsor Program to every neighborhood grocer and co-op from coast to coast. Sign up to be one of today’s 10 new Fair Food Sustainers!
The Park Slope Food Co-op, after years of supporting Fair Food allies’ marches in New York City, stepped up as the inaugural Fair Food Sponsor in 2019, and this year, the Sponsor movement has picked up speed. In February, the Takoma Park Silver Spring Co-op in Maryland joined the ranks of Sponsors, and most recently, Each Peach in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood of D.C. broke new ground as the first independent grocer to sign up as a Sponsor.
In the words of Each Peach co-founder Emily Friedberg, “We joined the Fair Food Sponsor Program because it’s a tangible way to put our values about food justice into practice, to help build the kind of food system we want to see.”
Indeed, the growing Sponsor program in the nation’s capital adds to the picture of what Fair Food in communities can look like:
D.C. Fair Food, one of the country’s longest-standing community-led Fair Food Committees, is a pillar of the city’s food justice scene. They are an incredible team that promotes solidarity with farmworkers everywhere they go – whether it’s protesting at a Wendy’s rally in the frigid winter snow or tabling at a breezy summer farmer’s market in their own neighborhoods.
Giant and Whole Foods – two of the city’s go-to large-scale grocery chains – are committed Participating Buyers in the Fair Food Program, using their market power to back up farmworkers’ rights in their supply chain.
And now, the D.C. area is home to not one, but two, Fair Food Sponsors – with the promise of more partners on the horizon.
As we imagine the next ten years, the Fair Food Sponsor program will become a key driving force for expanding both consumer consciousness and commitment, bringing human rights into every kitchen table in the country.
“The Immokalee farmworkers have always risked their lives to bring us the fresh food we all enjoy. This year, more than ever, we’ve thought of them as they put their lives on the line during COVID’s worst months. Today, thanks to the Fair Food Program (FFP) they created, farmworkers in the FFP enjoy respect, fair wages, and protection from modern-day slavery, other abuses. By making a long-term commitment as Fair Food Sustainers, we are continuing our long-term connection with the farmworkers and the work they do on this remarkable journey.” – Sue Carter, Ally and Fair Food Sustainer