Boot the Braids!… Student-led Wendy’s campaign set to hit the road running this coming school year! 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…  Members of the Student/Farmworker Alliance Steering Committee gathered in New York this past July to plan for the escalation of the Boot the Braids campaign on campuses this fall. 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). [...] [...] 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... Don't miss more on this year's Encuentro -- and how you can support the Fair Food Nation's brilliant young people! -- over at the CIW website!