ART 2: University of Florida and the “4 for Fair Food” Tour… Coalition of Immokalee Workers

PART 2: University of Florida and the “4 for Fair Food” Tour… Florida Gators, proud of the state’s homegrown Fair Food Program, are fighting for University of Florida to kick Wendy’s off campus.  Will this be the year that Florida’s flagship public university and agricultural school finally demonstrates support for the world-renowned social responsibility program in its own backyard? For the finale of the upcoming “4 for Fair Food” Tour, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and allies from across the South will be converging on Gainesville, Florida, home to the state’s largest and most prestigious educational institution, the University of Florida. Home to over 53,000 students, the sprawling UF campus is one of the state’s crowning academic jewels, ranked among the top 10 public institutions of the U.S., and this year, the administration is aiming to reach the top 5. From the earliest – and we mean earliest – days of the Campaign for Fair Food in 2001, students from the University of Florida have stood with the CIW, hosting some of the most powerful, and creative, actions in the Taco Bell Boycott (which you can see for yourself from one of the stunning photos, here on the right, from a 2002 Gainesville protest replete with stilt walkers and fire dancers!). Florida “Gators” were among the founders of the Student/Farmworker Alliance (SFA) nearly twenty years ago. Today SFA has become a national force from coast to coast in the fight for Fair Food – and, of course, is the driving force behind the Boot the Braids Campaign to have Universities disassociate themselves from Wendy’s, the only major fast food chain not to support Fair Food! With not one, but two Wendy’s on campus, UF students launched their campus-wide Boot the Braids Campaign five years ago, organizing colorful action after colorful action across the school’s sun-filled campus and marching to the Reitz Union, where the main Wendy’s is nestled in the school’s food court.  Yet despite the strong and growing protest movement on campus, the President’s office has not once in five years agreed to sit down with students to hear their urgent concerns about Wendy’s unconscionable behavior.  This year, the 4 for Fair Food Tour will be bringing the full force of the Fair Food movement to UF’s doorstep: farmworkers and their families from Immokalee on the official cross-country tour, fresh off of visits to Chapel Hill, Columbus, and Ann Arbor; caravans from cities across the south; and more farmworkers and their families from Immokalee, who will be taking advantage of spring break that week to bring their children and youth to the finale of the 4 for Fair Food Tour! When:  March 14th, 12:30 PM Where: Norman Field, 1200 SW 8th Ave, Gainesville, Florida Register here! Contact:  Uriel Perez, uriel@allianceforfairfood.org What could explain the University of Florida’s resistance to the Presidential Award-winning Fair Food Program? The dark history of the UF agricultural program and farmworkers’ human rights… The fact that UF has managed to ignore the well-documented exploitation and abuse of farmworkers for generations may have an explanation. Perhaps the most widely-recognized and influential department at the University of Florida is the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS), a research and teaching institution that is intimately connected to Florida agriculture, providing cutting-edge research, resources, and freshly-trained leaders for the industry... Read on about UF's history with the movement to protect Florida farmworkers over at the CIW website! Coalition of Immokalee Workers (239) 657 8311 | workers@ciw-online.org | www.ciw-online.org Connect with us  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌

Coalition of Immokalee Workers | 110 S 2nd St, Immokalee, FL 34142 Unsubscribe alfredjohnson34@comcast.net About our service provider Sent by workers@ciw-online.org in collaboration with Try it free today