Compass and Foodbuy representatives visited Immokalee to see the Fair Food Program’s industry-leading workplace protections in action. Here, delegation members join CIW and Pacific Tomato Growers representatives for a photo during a farm visit to Pacific’s operations outside Immokalee, where they saw a worker-to-worker education session and toured the fields.
“As a long-standing participating buyer in the Fair Food Program since 2009, Compass Group actively supports Fair Food Program in their goal to expand certification to more growers across the industry.”
“While this program started in the tomato fields of Florida, through the expansion of Fair Food Program certification as it reaches and grows to new states and countries of origin, nothing is out of scope!”
Representatives from Compass Group USA and its supply chain partner Foodbuy kicked off the new year with a visit to Immokalee, FL, the farmworker community where the Presidential Medal-winning Fair Food Program was born, to see the FFP in action and brainstorm ways to collaborate in the Program’s ever-accelerating expansion. As a longtime Participating Buyer of the Fair Food Program, Compass is an invaluable partner in bringing the FFP’s industry-leading protections to thousands of farmworkers across the country.
In Compass’ own words, the “FFP harnesses the power of consumer demand to give farmworkers a voice in the decisions that affect their lives, and to eliminate the longstanding abuses that have plagued agriculture for generations.” With a visit to a participating tomato farm — and not just any participating farm, but Pacific Tomato Growers, the very first major farm to sign a Fair Food agreement with the CIW — as well as a presentation by the Fair Food Standards Council, the third-party organization that monitors and enforces the FFP, Foodbuy and Compass representatives got to see the Fair Food Program’s transformative power up close.
Where before there was a climate of fear and silence for vulnerable farmworkers, now there is what one labor expert called “the best working environment in American agriculture” on Fair Food Program farms. When Compass first signed an agreement with the CIW in 2009, the Fair Food Program was still nothing more than a concept, an untested theory of change. Today, 15 years later, the Fair Food Program protects tens of thousands of farmworkers harvesting over a dozen crops in ten states and three continents, with an unparalleled track record of change and thousands of more workers and dozens of more crops ready to be included in the near-future.
Over that same period, the Fair Food Program’s Code of Conduct has continued to grow and evolve, constantly adding new standards to meet the ever-changing challenges facing the agricultural industry, from the COVID-19 pandemic to field safety issues to climate change, with industry-leading enforceable protections saving countless farmworkers’ lives and helping growers and buyers alike meet their sustainability goals. For all these reasons and more, the Fair Food Program is recognized by the United States Department of Agriculture as the highest level of human rights protection (“Platinum Level”) in US agriculture for H-2A workers.
These unprecedented reforms are all possible thanks to the unique partnership at the heart of the Fair Food Program among workers, growers, and buyers like Compass and Foodbuy, and we are excited to share their account of the delegation’s recent visit to Immokalee — and their view of that essential partnership — here below!
Creating a more sustainable future is all about forging connections! 🤝
The goal of this trip was to meet in-person to discuss the program’s past and how the Compass Group family can continue to support them in the future.
The group toured the fields at Pacific Tomato Growers and attended a worker education session. These sessions are held with workers in their own languages once every growing season in order to inform them of their rights and protections through the Fair Food Program.
They cover a wide range of topics from how high the buckets of tomatoes should be filled, to how their FFP premium appears on their checks, as well as
– Minimum wage rights
– Health and safety
– Preventing sexual violence and slavery
Compass and Foodbuy representatives visited Immokalee to see the Fair Food Program’s industry-leading workplace protections in action!
This is just one of the many activities that the FFP organizes to provide education around and protect farm workers’ rights.
Gwen Cameron, the owner of Rancho Durazno LLC, later joined the group virtually from Colorado to share about her experience as a new grower within the program. We also heard a presentation from the Fair Food Standards Council, the FFP’s designated monitoring organization, which presented data on the program’s accomplishments in achieving compliance on participating farms.
As a long-standing participating buyer in the Fair Food Program since 2009, Compass Group actively supports Fair Food Program in their goal to expand certification to more growers across the industry.
While this program started in the tomato fields of Florida, through the expansion of Fair Food Program certification as it reaches and grows to new states and countries of origin, nothing is out of scope!
