ACTION ALERT: “Demanding Dignity for Farmworkers” Week of Action, April 5-11!

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The “essential-yet-disposable” paradox exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic has made the Fair Food movement’s call for enforceable safety and human rights protections for farmworkers more urgent than ever before.  Essential workers harvesting the food we eat need more than performative appreciation for their labor — they need access to PPE, sick leave and a complaint mechanism for reporting concerns related to their health and safety on the job that triggers a thorough investigation and swift resolution.  

That’s why, when companies like Wendy’s repeatedly go out of their way to reject commitment to the only human rights program known to protect farmworkers from dangerous and abusive conditions, we need to fight back. Wendy’s must stop ignoring the health and dignity of essential workers in the fields and join the Fair Food Program!

Can’t plan an action in person?
There’s three ways to plug-in virtually:

  1. Call Wendy's headquarters: Give Wendy's CEO Todd Penegor a ring to demand the fast-food company joins the Fair Food Program to create a tangible and meaningful difference in the lives of the essential workers harvesting Wendy's produce.

    Call-in number: Dial 614-764-3100, press 3 and ask to leave a message for Todd Penegor

    Here is a sample script:

    “Hi, my name is _______ and I’m calling to leave a message for Mr. Todd Penegor in support of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.  For over eight years, consumers have been asking Wendy’s to join the Fair Food Program, the only human rights program proven to protect farmworkers from dangerous and abusive conditions in corporate supply chains. Wendy’s refusal to join the Fair Food Program is especially deplorable in light of the coronavirus pandemic, which has devastated farmworker communities at an alarming rate. It’s time for Wendy’s to stop ignoring the health and dignity of essential workers in its supply chain and join the Fair Food Program once and for all. 

    Thank you for relaying this message.” 

  2. Sign the Deliver With Dignity petition: Help us amplify the growing petition calling on Uber Eats, DoorDash, Grubhub, and Postmates to join the Wendy’s Boycott and take real leadership on the issue of human rights in our country’s food system by dropping Wendy's from their delivery options!

  3. Send an email to Uber Eats, DoorDash, Grubhub, and Postmates CEOs:After you sign the petition, take a moment to send an email to the top executives of the nation's principal delivery service companies demanding they stop doing business with Wendy’s until the hamburger giant joins the Fair Food Program.

The viability of Wendy’s business during times of calm, and especially during times of crisis, cannot be separated from the health and well-being of the workers at the base of its supply chain. Join us for the “Demanding Dignity for Farmworkers” Week of Action from April 5-11 to make our message clear to Wendy’s: Stop ignoring the health and dignity of essential workers in the fields and join the Fair Food Program! 

You can sign up here to take action in solidarity with farmworkers during the Week of Action to demonstrate your support for the Wendy’s Boycott by holding signs outside your local Wendy’s and delivering a letter to the manager.  Check out this handy Week of Action toolkit to help you prepare!

If you’re in NYC, you can join New York Fair Food in protesting outside of the offices of Trian Partners, which is not only Wendy’s largest institutional investor but also has its founding partners Nelson Peltz and Peter May sitting at the top of Wendy’s Board of Directors.  And if you’re in San Francisco, you can join allies in demanding the country’s top delivery service companies like Uber Eats and DoorDash to end business ties with Wendy’s and reject farmworker exploitation. 

Have questions? Get in touch with us at 239-657-8311 or email organize@allianceforfairfood.org!

2020 Growing the Light: Solstice Reflection on Farmworker Justice

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This Holiday Season, join farmworkers, Silvia Sabanilla, Oscar Otzoy, Lupe Gonzalo, and Lusvi Perez, and allies of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), Rev. Allison Farnum, Rev. Naomi King, Rabbi Lev Meirowitz Nelson, and Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster, in preparing to grow the light of farmworker justice throughout the new year. The season of Hanukkah, Advent, and the Solstice draws us into a time of anticipation and preparation with all who long for release from oppression. Through the Fair Food Program (FFP), the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, together with student and faith allies, kindles the flame of justice for farmworkers in the tomato fields of Immokalee and now on farms across seven states. Sign up today to receive this weekly Holiday reflection series and its calls to action in solidarity with farmworkers!

Winter Solstice Reflection on Farmworker Justice by Rev. Allison Farnum

Rev. Allison Farnum is a Unitarian Universalist minister, serving as Director of the Unitarian Universalist Prison Ministry of Illinois.  She serves on the Faith Working Group with the Alliance for Fair Food.

Rev. Allison Farnum is a Unitarian Universalist minister, serving as Director of the Unitarian Universalist Prison Ministry of Illinois. She serves on the Faith Working Group with the Alliance for Fair Food.

The winter solstice is when the observant lean into the longest night and prepare to welcome the returning of the light.  In Immokalee, winter is the time when farmworkers in Florida supply 90% of the nation’s tomatoes. Members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and their allies have long been calling for a new day of dignity in the fields, inviting buyers to welcome this new day by participating in the fair food program. Yet, it has never been without struggle. And as we approach the longest night this year, oh, has it been a year. The triple pandemic of COVID-19, economic hardship, and racism has revealed itself so clearly in Immokalee, where the basic rights of health care and safe working conditions in essential farm work have been disregarded.  Yet CIW presses on, leaning into the struggle and reminding their city, county, state, and the whole world that farmworkers are people, too. 

I have learned that the longest night can make the dawn feel brighter. One day, we allies joined CIW on a spring action tour, marching in Mango, Florida.  The flatbed truck carrying people and the PA system had been stopped by local law enforcement, though organizers had checked in with all local police in each Floridian county. As we waited, sweating, eager to continue onward, this unwelcome pause generated something beautiful. What could have been a bunch of grumpy, tired, and sweaty activists and allies waiting on the side of the road became something unexpected. Ever so softly, a little salsa music began drifting from the speakers. The beat grew stronger. And suddenly, we were laughing and dancing in the grassy ditches. I looked around at the beauty of resistance, the fruitfulness of struggle, and I knew that I was dancing on holy ground, sweating with delight at being alive and honoring life itself, which I call God.  

We are saying goodnight to 2020, and even some of us clergy have a few cuss words under our collars for this particular year. But where have we seen the beauty and resistance in the midst of all the struggle? How does leaning into the beauty of resistance help prepare us to welcome the light? How might you deepen your relationship with growing the light by working in solidarity with the CIW and their allies?  As you observe the longest night, this solstice seeks out those who are ready to welcome a new day of dignity. 

Meditation/Prayer - (Light a candle in a dark or dimly lit room)

Spirit of Life and love, be with us as we lean into the longest night and wrap us in the nurture of your darkness. We know that seeds wait in the dark, rich earth. We know that stars do not shine without the mysterious void. Let the darkness give us rest and comfort. Prepare our hearts to make room for the new day dawning, where human dignity is recognized in impactful ways in Florida fields and beyond. Please give us the dark's grounded strength to nurture this journey to justice, and may the growing light in the days ahead infuse us with the energy to be in solidarity and stay in the struggle. 

As we extinguish this flame, we carry the light forward in our hearts.

Blessed Be.


Learn more:

Learn more about how workers in other industries and supply chains are adapting the ground-breaking Worker-drive Social Responsibility model to achieve rights advances -- from protecting the safety of over 2 million garment workers in Bangladesh to guaranteeing the rights of Vermont dairy workers in Ben and Jerry's milk supply chain to fashion models!


Searching for a gift that matters this Holiday season? The CIW, AFF, and FFSC have launched a fundraising campaign to ensure farmworkers across the country receive urgently-needed protections as they continue to harvest our food as the pandemic persists. Every donation helps strengthen the Fair Food Program, which is guaranteeing a healthier, safer, and more dignified workplace for essential farmworkers during this time of crisis. Please consider making a donation by clicking here.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Rev. Allison Farnum is a Unitarian Universalist minister, serving as Director of the Unitarian Universalist Prison Ministry of Illinois. She serves on the Faith Working Group with the Alliance for Fair Food.

2020 Growing the Light: Holiday Reflections on Farmworker Justice by CIW farmworkers: Part 2

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This Holiday Season, join farmworkers, Silvia Sabanilla, Oscar Otzoy, Lupe Gonzalo, and Lusvi Perez, and allies of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), Rev. Allison Farnum, Rev. Naomi King, Rabbi Lev Meirowitz Nelson, and Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster, in preparing to grow the light of farmworker justice throughout the new year. The season of Hanukkah, Advent, and the Solstice draws us into a time of anticipation and preparation with all who long for release from oppression. Through the Fair Food Program (FFP), the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, together with student and faith allies, kindles the flame of justice for farmworkers in the tomato fields of Immokalee and now on farms across seven states. Sign up today to receive this weekly Holiday reflection series and its calls to action in solidarity with farmworkers!

La Esperanza de Un Mundo Mejor por Oscar Otzoy

Oscar Otzoy es miembro del personal de trabajadores agrícolas de la Coalición de Trabajadores de Immokalee (CIW). Originaria de Guatemala, Oscar ha trabajado por años en la industria agrícola como trabajador agrícola migrante.

Oscar Otzoy es miembro del personal de trabajadores agrícolas de la Coalición de Trabajadores de Immokalee (CIW). Originaria de Guatemala, Oscar ha trabajado por años en la industria agrícola como trabajador agrícola migrante.


Isaías 61:11

“Porque como la tierra produce su renuevo, y como el huerto hace brotar su semilla, así Jehová el Señor hará brotar justicia y alabanza delante de todas las naciones.”

REFLEXION - Sin duda alguna, si algo podemos aprender con el libro de Isaías, en el versículo 11 donde nos muestra precisamente cómo la tierra hace brotar las semillas como Jehová el Señor hace brotar la justicia. También, nos enseña claramente el momento en que estamos en nuestra comunidad dónde vemos precisamente como las semillas en los campos de Immokalee han comenzado a dar sus frutos como la justicia ha llegado a oídos de los trabajadores. Nosotros, los trabajadores, tenemos la oportunidad de escuchar nuestros derechos que están incluidos en el programa de comida justa. Por primera vez en toda la historia de la industria agrícola, tenemos una voz para reportar libremente los abusos que vienen en diferentes direcciones. 

Como miembro de la comunidad de Immokalee y trabajador del campo donde los abusos pasaban, veo que finalmente tenemos la oportunidad de gozar los derechos básicos que se ha logrado mediante los años de lucha de la Coalición de Trabajadores de Immokalee. Cabe mencionar  que en el versículo 7 de Isaías dice “en vez de vergüenza mi pueblo recibirá doble porción” , podemos ver que, como trabajadores hemos sido parte de las injusticias, desigualdad y un trabajo no valorado pero no nos preocupemos así como muchos hemos sufrido. Debemos seguir perseverando en lo que ahora hemos logrado. Nos dice que si seguimos perseverando, podemos alcanzar doble bendición en nuestro trabajo y en nuestras vidas.

Adviento es el tiempo de espera pero todavía debemos tener gozo y amor en esta temporada. Haciendo una breve pausa a todo, nos referimos al doloroso año en que todos estamos viviendo la llegada del covid-19 a nuestra comunidad. Ha sido un obstáculo más en la vida de los trabajadores pero como de costumbre, nos solidarizamos y nos abrazamos aunque el abrazo sea de una distancia. Sin embargo, sentimos el Amor fraternal que une a nuestra comunidad. Aquí nos muestra que debemos de gozar con los que se gozan.

ORACIÓN - Dios, creador del cielo y de la tierra, te agradecemos por todas las bendiciones que nos das cada día. Gracias por darnos la oportunidad de perdonar a quienes nos han lastimado. Gracias por darnos la oportunidad de formar parte de la familia de quienes creen en la justicia y por las de personas que han creído en nosotros. Gracias por la fe. Hoy podemos confirmar lo que dice tu palabra. Te agradecemos en tu nombre y bendecimos a cada uno. Amen.


Hope for a Better World by Oscar Otzoy

Isaiah 61:11

"For as the earth produces its branch, and as the garden causes its seed to sprout, so the Lord God will cause justice and praise to spring up before all nations."

Reflection: 

Without a doubt, if we can learn anything from the book of Isaiah, verse 11 where it shows us precisely how the earth makes the seeds sprout as the Lord God makes justice sprout. Also, it clearly shows us the moment in which we are in our community where we see precisely how the seeds in the fields of Immokalee have begun to bear fruit as justice has reached the ears of the workers. We workers have the opportunity to hear our rights that are included in the fair food program. For the first time in the entire history of the agricultural industry, we have a voice to freely report abuses that come from different directions. 

As a member of the Immokalee community and a farmworker where the abuses were happening, I see that we finally have the opportunity to enjoy the basic rights that have been achieved through the years of struggle of the Immokalee Workers' Coalition. It should be mentioned that in verse 7 of Isaiah he says "instead of shame my people will receive a double portion", we can see that, as workers, we have been part of injustices, inequality, and an unvalued job but we do not worry as many have suffered. We must continue to persevere in what we have now achieved. It tells us that if we continue to persevere, we can achieve double blessings in our work and in our lives.

Advent is the time to wait but still have joy and love like this season. Taking a brief pause from everything, we refer to the painful year in which we are all experiencing the arrival of the covid-19 in our community. It has been one more obstacle in the lives of the workers, but as usual, we stand in solidarity and hug each other even though the hug is from a distance. However, we feel the brotherly Love that unites our community. Here he shows us that we should enjoy those who enjoy themselves.

Prayer:

God, creator of heaven and earth, we thank you for all the blessings you give us every day. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to forgive those who have hurt us. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to be part of the family of those who believes in justice and of people who have believed in us. Thanks for the faith. Today we can confirm what your word says. We thank you in your name and we bless each one. Amen.

Searching for a gift that matters this Christmas? When you make a donation to the Fair Food Program in honor of someone, you gift goes to protect and advance farmworkers' human rights. And the Fair Food Program has beautiful holiday cards you can print or which can be emailed. Give a gift of justice, respect, and hope today.


About the Author:

Oscar Otzoy is a senior staff member and leader of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). Mr. Otzoy, originally from Guatemala, worked in the agricultural industry across the East Coast for many years as a harvester in everything from tomatoes to blueberries. As part of the Fair Food Program, Mr. Otzoy and his colleagues conduct workers’ rights education in the fields on all farms participating in the Fair Food Program. Mr. Otzoy’s work at the CIW includes hosting daily radio shows on the CIW’s low-power community FM radio station, leading the weekly community meetings, receiving complaints of abuses in the fields, and managing wage theft claims. Finally, Mr. Otzoy represents the CIW at a national level, speaking publicly on the Fair Food Program and the Campaign for Fair Food, both during major actions with thousands of consumers and in dozens of presentations throughout the year.

2020 Growing the Light: Holiday Reflections on Farmworker Justice by CIW farmworkers: Part 1

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This Holiday Season, join farmworkers, Silvia Sabanilla, Oscar Otzoy, Lupe Gonzalo, and Lusvi Perez, and allies of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), Rev. Allison Farnum, Rev. Naomi King, Rabbi Lev Meirowitz Nelson, and Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster, in preparing to grow the light of farmworker justice throughout the new year. The season of Hanukkah, Advent, and the Solstice draws us into a time of anticipation and preparation with all who long for release from oppression. Through the Fair Food Program (FFP), the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, together with student and faith allies, kindles the flame of justice for farmworkers in the tomato fields of Immokalee and now on farms across seven states. Sign up today to receive this weekly Holiday reflection series and its calls to action in solidarity with farmworkers!

Un Nuevo Dia de Luz y Esperanza Para Los Trabajadores Agricolas por Lupe y Silvia

Lupe Gonzalo es miembro del personal de trabajadores agrícolas de la Coalición de Trabajadores de Immokalee (CIW). Originaria de Guatemala, Lupe ha trabajado durante 12 años en la industria agrícola como trabajadora agrícola migrante.

Lupe Gonzalo es miembro del personal de trabajadores agrícolas de la Coalición de Trabajadores de Immokalee (CIW). Originaria de Guatemala, Lupe ha trabajado durante 12 años en la industria agrícola como trabajadora agrícola migrante.

Salmos 85, 10-13

En cuanto a la bondad amorosa y el apego a la verdad, se han encontrado; la justicia y la paz se han besado.

El apego a la verdad mismo brotará de la mismísima tierra, y la justicia misma mirara desde los mismísimos cielos.

También Dios por sunparte, dará lo que es bueno y nuestra propia tierra dará su fruto.

Delante de él la justicia misma andara y ella hará de sus pasos un camino.

Silvia Sabanilla es trabajadora agrícola de la Coalición de Trabajadores de Immokalee (CIW). Originaria de México, Silvia ha trabajado durante más de 17 años en la industria agrícola como trabajadora agrícola migrante.

Silvia Sabanilla es trabajadora agrícola de la Coalición de Trabajadores de Immokalee (CIW). Originaria de México, Silvia ha trabajado durante más de 17 años en la industria agrícola como trabajadora agrícola migrante.

REFLEXION - Como lo menciona Salmos 85, Delante de Dios la justicia misma andara y ella hará de sus pasos un camino. Como trabajadores hemos encontrado ese camino de justicia de la que Dios nos habla, la hemos caminado junto con cientos de líderes religiosos, de la mano de Dios y la bondad de miles de consumidores hemos llevado la justicia a miles de trabajadores que no tenían una voz, hoy en día a través del Programa de Comida Justa, los trabajadores podemos vivir con más esperanza de ser respetados como seres humanos, por primera vez sentimos ese rayo de luz, y no queremos que esa luz se apague.

Esperamos en este tiempo de adviento que todos podamos reflexionar sobre el llamado de Dios, el llamado a caminar juntos en la justicia y con la paz, especialmente en estos momentos de la pandemia donde todos estamos enfrentando diferentes problemas, especialmente los trabajadores agrícolas, pasando muchas necesidades.

En estos tiempos de adviento, les invitamos a reflexionar junto con nosotros, de cómo responder al llamado que Dios nos hace, para encontrar la paz justicia y juntos llevar nuestra bondad a los ejecutivos de las corporación para que el amor de Dios toque sus corazones y hacer un mejor cambio para los trabajadores agrícolas, poder trabajar juntos y construir un mundo sin violencia, con respeto y dignidad. Como dice en Salmos la verdad misma brotara de la mismísima tierra y la justicia misma mirara desde el cielo.

ORACIÓN - Que la luz ilumine siempre nuestro camino para seguir nuestra fe y esperanza, y que el amor y la bondad de Dios, siempre nos acompañe. Señor tú conoces nuestra lucha, tu conoces los obstáculos que estamos enfrentando. Tu mas que nadie nos entiende: Aún mejor que nosotros mismo, ponemos en tus manos nuestras finanzas, el futuro de nuestro trabajo, las bendiciones que nos has dado. Gracias a cada uno de ustedes que han apoyado nuestra lucha, lo que hemos vivido año tras años, a pesar de las circunstancias que hemos pasado, hay hermanos y hermanas que nos ayudan a fortalecer nuestra fe. Que lo poco que tengamos se transforme radicalmente en algo de utilidad y valor. Dios bendiga a cada uno de nosotros, Amen.


A New Day of Light and Hope for Agricultural Workers by Lupe and Silvia

Psalms 85, 10-13

As for loving-kindness and attachment to the truth, they have been found; justice and peace have kissed.

Attachment to the truth itself will spring from the very earth, and justice itself will look down from the very heavens. 

Also, God for his part will give what is good and our own land will give its fruit. 

Before him, justice itself will walk and she will make a path out of his steps.

Reflection:

As mentioned in Psalm 85, Justice itself will walk before God, and she will make a path out of her steps. As farmworkers, we have found that path of justice that God speaks of. We have walked it together with hundreds of religious leaders and members of the faith community, hand in hand with God and the goodness of thousands of consumers, we have brought justice to thousands of workers who did not have a voice. Nowadays, through the Fair Food Program, workers can live with more hope of being respected as human beings; for the first time we felt that ray of light, and we do not want that light to go out

In this season of Advent, we hope that we can all reflect on God's call, the call to walk together in justice and peace, especially in these times of the pandemic where we are all facing different problems, especially agricultural workers, going through many needs.

In these times of Advent, we invite you to reflect together with us, how to respond to the call that God makes us, to find peace and justice, and together bring our goodness to corporate executives so that God's love touches their hearts and create a change for agricultural workers, be able to work together and build a world without violence, with respect and dignity. As it says in Psalms, truth itself will spring from the very earth, and justice will look down from heaven.


Prayer:

May the light always illuminate our path to follow our faith and hope, and may the love and goodness of God always be with us. Lord, you know our struggle; you know the obstacles we are facing. You more than anyone understands us: Even better than ourselves, we put in your hands our finances, the future of our work, the blessings you have given us. Thanks to each of you who have supported our struggle, what we have experienced year after year; despite the circumstances we have gone through, there are brothers and sisters who help us strengthen our faith. That what little we have is radically transformed into something of utility and value. God bless each one of us, Amen.


Learn more:

Learn more about how workers in other industries and supply chains are adapting the ground-breaking Worker-drive Social Responsibility model to achieve rights advances -- from protecting the safety of over 2 million garment workers in Bangladesh to guaranteeing the rights of Vermont dairy workers in Ben and Jerry's milk supply chain to fashion models!


Searching for a gift that matters this Holiday season? The CIW, AFF, and FFSC have launched a fundraising campaign to ensure farmworkers across the country receive urgently-needed protections as they continue to harvest our food as the pandemic persists. Every donation helps strengthen the Fair Food Program, which is guaranteeing a healthier, safer, and more dignified workplace for essential farmworkers during this time of crisis. Please consider making a donation by clicking here.


About the Author(s):

Lupe Gonzalo is a staff member of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW).  She has worked in the United States' agricultural fields for the last 12 years as a migrant farmworker, including in the harvesting of tomatoes, citrus, peppers, and many other vegetables and fruits.  As part of the Fair Food Program education team, Ms. Gonzalo and her colleagues conduct workers’ rights education in seven states along the East Coast throughout the year.  Ms. Gonzalo was also a member of the CIW team working with Futures Without Violence, which collaborated with CIW and other Fair Food Program partners on the first sexual harassment training curriculum for the agricultural sector in the U.S.  Drawing on her experience with the Fair Food Program, Ms. Gonzalo has helped to train, mentor, and educate workers from other regions and industries on the Worker-driven Social Responsibility model, assisting in those workers’ efforts to combat human rights abuses across the U.S. and the globe. Ms. Gonzalo's work at the CIW includes hosting daily radio shows on the CIW’s low-power community FM radio station, leading the weekly women’s group meetings, receiving complaints of abuses in the fields, and managing wage theft claims.  Finally, she was featured on CNN Freedom Project’s recent series on the Fair Food Program and was named a Community Trailblazer by the Equal Voice Magazine.

Silvia Sabanilla is a staff member of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW).  Originally from Mexico, Ms. Sabanilla worked in the agricultural industry across the South for more than 17 years as a harvester, picking tomatoes, peppers, and other mixed vegetables.  As part of the Fair Food Program, Ms. Sabanilla and her colleagues conduct workers’ rights education on all farms participating in the Fair Food Program.  Ms. Sabanilla’s work at the CIW includes hosting daily radio shows on the CIW’s low-power community FM radio station, leading the weekly Women’s Group meetings, receiving complaints of abuses in the fields, and managing wage theft claims.  Finally, Ms. Sabanilla represents the CIW at a national level, speaking publicly on the challenges faced by farmworkers in Florida, both during major actions with thousands of consumers and in dozens of presentations throughout the year.

2020 Growing the Light: Hanukkah Reflections on Farmworker Justice

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This Holiday Season, join farmworkers, Silvia Sabanilla, Oscar Otzoy, Lupe Gonzalo, and Lusvi Perez, and allies of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), Rev. Allison Farnum, Rev. Naomi King, Rabbi Lev Meirowitz Nelson, and Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster, in preparing to grow the light of farmworker justice throughout the new year. The season of Hanukkah, Advent, and the Solstice draws us into a time of anticipation and preparation with all who long for release from oppression. Through the Fair Food Program (FFP), the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, together with student and faith allies, kindles the flame of justice for farmworkers in the tomato fields of Immokalee and now on farms across seven states. Sign up today to receive this weekly Holiday reflection series and its calls to action in solidarity with farmworkers!

First Night of Hanukkah by Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster

Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster is Deputy Director at T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights and longtime supporter of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). Rachel serves on the Faith Working Group for the Alliance for Fair Food (AFF) and has brou…

Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster is Deputy Director at T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights and longtime supporter of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). Rachel serves on the Faith Working Group for the Alliance for Fair Food (AFF) and has brought dozens of Rabbi’s to Immokalee via T’ruah’s “Tomato Rabbi’s” program.

Originally published in the Fall of 2015.

Early one morning a few weeks ago, I stood in a tomato field and witnessed something that looked mundane on the surface but was miraculous: the Coalition of Immokalee Workers was training a group of workers on their rights under the Fair Food Program. As I listened to the CIW explaining the protections gained under the FFP—including the right to report abuses without fear of retaliation and zero-tolerance policies for wage theft, violence, and sexual harassment—the relaxed attitudes of both workers and management suggested normalcy to the presentation on human rights I was hearing. But actually, this presentation about worker rights—happening on company property on company time, given by a worker-led organization to their peers—was remarkable, both within the history of labor organizing as a whole and knowing the decades-long struggle of CIW that led to this moment. For years, the CIW—the supposedly powerless workers—had faith that if they demanded that the powerful growers recognize their fundamental dignity and the need for human rights in the field, that they could win against all odds. Partnering with allies—consumers, students, and many thousands of people of faith—the few became the many, and the faith that change was possible became the celebration of a new day for farmworkers under the Fair Food Program.

I was grateful to be shadowing CIW with Chanukah on the horizon. In the popular imagination, the miracle of Chanukah is divine: the oil that was supposed to burn for only one night lasted for eight. But the true miracle of Chanukah is the power of human beings to achieve great deeds through faith: the victory of the determined Maccabees, against all odds, over the larger and more powerful Syrian army. The story of Chanukah is about strategic resistance and a belief in the strength of fundamental values. And this is also what I have learned through my involvement with the CIW’s Campaign for Fair Food and seeing human rights take root in Florida's tomato fields since the implementation of the FFP in 2011. If you believe that new worlds are possible, then you can overturn giants, whether they are mighty armies of the past or the grocery and fast food behemoths of today.

In 2014, when Human Rights Shabbat fell on Chanukah, T’ruah adapted traditional Jewish liturgy for the holiday to write a modern human rights kavannah (intention) about CIW. It includes a quote from the prophet Hosea that symbolizes T’ruah’s #TomatoRabbis campaign in support of CIW: “Plant righteousness for yourselves, harvest the fruits of goodness.” (10:12) Part of what I love about this verse is that it insists that we must be agents of our own change: to truly change the world, we must plant for ourselves the harvest we hope someday to see. The CIW embodies that philosophy. The Fair Food Program is a Worker-driven Social Responsibility model, grounded in the leadership and expertise of those with the most to lose when human rights abuses occur: the workers themselves.

Over 20 years ago, the Maccabees of the tomato fields began planting seeds of human rights; now, workers are enjoying a harvest of goodness and light. They are living out the promise conveyed in Psalms: Light is planted for the righteous and radiant joy for the upright.” (Psalms 97:11)

Tonight, as Jews and their friends and families everywhere gather to light the chanukiah and celebrate liberation, and that human beings can achieve the miraculous in our day just as they did in the past, I encourage you to recite these words of thanksgiving:

Prayer - Who will retell the great deeds of the workers, who will count them? In every generation, heroic leaders arise to continue leading workers towards their redemption. May it be Your will that the farmworkers who have achieved such victories continue to prevail for all time, And may they spread their sukkah of justice over all farmworkers. As the prophet, Hosea said, “Plant righteousness for yourself, harvest the fruits of goodness.” (10:12) Blessed are You, ETERNAL ONE, who sprouts the seeds of redemption.


Learn more:

Learn more about how workers in other industries and supply chains are adapting the ground-breaking Worker-drive Social Responsibility model to achieve rights advances -- from protecting the safety of over 2 million garment workers in Bangladesh to guaranteeing the rights of Vermont dairy workers in Ben and Jerry's milk supply chain to fashion models!


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About the Author:

Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster is T’ruah’s Deputy Director. Ordained in 2008 from the Jewish Theological Seminary, where she was a student activist and leader, she is a noted speaker and writer on Judaism and human rights, including speaking internationally on behalf of the U.S. State Department on the issue of human trafficking. Her writing has appeared on CNN.com, the Forward, the New York Daily News, the Huffington Post, and many other publications. Rabbi Kahn-Troster was named to the Jewish Week’s 2011 “36 under 36” for her human rights activism. She serves on the boards of the Alliance for Fair Food and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility.




Governor DeSantis on farmworkers: “You don’t want those folks mixing with the general public”…

Faced with skyrocketing infection rates and questions regarding his decision to re-open the state despite alarming data trends, Florida Governor DeSantis chooses division over compassion, scapegoating over science…

Governor blames “overwhelmingly Hispanic” farmworkers, and crowded living and working conditions beyond their control, for sharp rise in new COVID-19 cases, rather than ask if his own actions — and inaction — might have contributed to the dramatic increase in suffering and death among farmworkers in his state;  

CIW’s Silvia Perez: “Our community is very small so when a worker loses their life, the community notices and comes together to raise money to help send the worker back to their home country,” she said. “When you hear those comments, it’s like … why does he not value us?”

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, leader of a state hard hit by the novel coronavirus, makes it a practice to read the eulogies of three victims of COVID-19 as part of his regular press conferences on the pandemic.  Black, white, Latino, people of every race, background, and occupation are paid this simple, but moving, respect by the state’s chief executive as a way to underscore the horrible human cost of the deadly virus.  His inclusive tributes are a poignant reminder that the loss of one person to this pandemic diminishes us all, and that our best hope in the fight against this existential threat is to remain firmly united.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, on the other hand, takes a decidedly different approach to the reckoning required of him as the leader of a state quickly becoming the new national epicenter of the pandemic.  His public statements over the past week reveal a far less compassionate, more divisive strategy for addressing the growing crisis in the Sunshine State.

When asked during a recent press conference whether his decision to precipitously re-open the state might have contributed to the sharp rise of new COVID-19 cases in Florida — where this past week saw one record high after another — Governor DeSantis decided to point the finger instead at some of his poorest and least powerful constituents:

“I think the No. 1 outbreak we’ve seen is in the agriculture communities,” he said. “There was just a big case dump in North Central Florida there was a watermelon farm. You’ve had farm communities in Collier, Palm Beach, Martin, Levy, Hendry, and what happens is these are workers that are working close together once one gets it, it tends to spread very rapidly throughout those areas.”

What he said next cast a stark light on the mindset governing decision-making in Tallahassee since the first days of the pandemic, and revealed perhaps the real reason behind the current spike in cases in Immokalee and other farmworker communities:

“You don’t want those folks mixing with the general public if you have an outbreak,” Mr. DeSantis said last week, infuriating longtime community activists who say the answer is not to isolate an already overlooked population but rather to help improve its working and housing conditions.

Finally, Governor DeSantis took the opportunity during a subsequent press conference to underscore the ethnicity of the people he was choosing to single out as the principal cause of the sharp rise in new cases, declaring, apropos of nothing:

“They’re also looking at construction workers and other types of day laborers, they’re finding these are overwhelmingly Hispanic workers and day laborers, but they were in Northwest Florida (where they) found a couple cases,” he said.

Thus has the governor of Florida decided to approach the fact that the daily count of new cases in his state has skyrocketed since re-opening at the end of May, as seen in this graph from the New York Times:

And the spike continues to sharpen.  On Friday, the number of new COVID-19 cases peaked at more than 3,600.  On Saturday it broke 4,000 for the first time.  

Despite what many political observers are now calling his premature decision to re-open the state — and despite what virtually all medical observers decry as a totally inadequate effort to provide contact tracing and isolation resources to communities fighting the deadly virus — the most powerful man in Florida has chosen to blame the state’s least powerful residents for the surge in new COVID-19 cases.  And — though absolutely no one asked — he has drawn a sharp dividing line between those workers and what he calls “the general population,” even going as far as to highlight the ethnicity of the farmworkers and other low-wage workers whom he has chosen to scapegoat.

CIW staff members and former farmworkers Lupe Gonzalo (left) and Silvia Perez.

Meanwhile, human beings in Immokalee and other farmworker communities around the state of Florida — essential workers given no choice but to continue working for the past several months so that the rest of the state’s residents, sheltered safely at home, could have food on their tables — continue to grow gravely ill and die.  

That’s why, when asked for her thoughts on Governor DeSantis’ comments, Silvia Perez of the CIW (pictured here on the right in 2015, speaking with Walmart representatives, Florida tomato growers, and the Chairwoman of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights at the ceremony marking Walmart’s decision to join the Fair Food Program), could only shake her head and observe:

“Our community is very small so when a worker loses their life, the community notices and comes together to raise money to help send the worker back to their home country,” she said. “When you hear those comments, it’s like … why does he not value us?”

That is a question that we can only hope reporters pose to Governor DeSantis at his next press conference, and don’t stop asking until he gives a meaningful answer.  He may choose not to recognize the victims of the COVID-19 on his watch as does his counterpart in New Jersey, but he cannot be allowed to dismiss their humanity altogether, or the state and local officials under his direction will be likely to do so, as well, and the results will be devastating.  

What are the real reasons for Florida’s skyrocketing infection rates?

Let’s begin with the mindset revealed in Governor DeSantis’ statement about not wanting farmworkers “mixing with the general public.”

It should go without saying, but, for the record… farmworkers are part of – not apart from – the “general public” in Florida.  Farmworkers living and working in Florida are Floridians, just as attorneys, grocery store clerks, musicians, librarians, doctors and nurses, school teachers, mechanics, bakers, and candlestick makers living in Florida are Floridians.  Farmworker is an occupation, not a caste.  And, like it or not, you can’t un-mix them. Farmworkers shop at the same stores, go to the same movie theaters, eat at the same restaurants, and play at the same parks and beaches as millions of other Floridians.  

But, if Governor DeSantis and other decision-makers in his administration perceive farmworkers as being distinct from the Floridians they considers their proper constituents, that could go a long way to explaining why the state has been so slow and ineffectual in responding to the extraordinarily high risk posed by the novel coronavirus in farmworker communities like Immokalee.

Testing delayed is protection denied…

Consider this timeline:

  • On April 1, the CIW sent a private letter directly to the office of Gov. DeSantis as well as state, local, and federal officials sounding the alarm about the vulnerabilities of farmworkers in the face of the unfolding pandemic.

  • On April 3, the CIW published an op/ed in the New York Times that read, in part, “[I]if something isn’t done—now—to address their unique vulnerability, the men and women who plant, cultivate and harvest our food will face a decimating wave of contagion and misery in a matter of weeks, if not days.”

  • That same week, we launched a petition calling on Governor DeSantis “to immediately take all the possible steps, along with the local and federal government, to protect farmworkers in Immokalee from the COVID-19 pandemic,” including an immediate start to community-wide testing.  By the end of the month, more than 25,000 people around the country had signed the petition.

  • On April 18th, our call for urgent intervention on the part of the governor reached millions through a live interview with Chris Cuomo on CNN, which was followed by dozens of stories in local and national media outlets, including the CBS Evening News, the Washington Post, and NPR.

  • On April 23rd, we joined nearly 50 other farmworker and community organizations in calling on Governor DeSantis to take immediate steps to address the clear and present danger facing Florida’s farmworkers.  

  • And by April 24th, over 230 organizations had signed an open letter to the Governor supporting CIW’s petition, including the Council of Florida Medical School Deans and the Florida Public Health Association, warning Gov. DeSantis that “unless [these measures are] done, Immokalee will almost certainly become an epicenter of contagion.”

It wasn’t until May 3rd – a full month after the urgent New York Times op/ed that launched the campaign – that testing started in Immokalee.  And even then it was only a three-day burst of testing, not the steady, committed, accessible process necessary to get a true measure of the virus’ grip on the community.  That level of testing wouldn’t start until May 31st, after another long delay.  By that time, the virus had established a firm foothold in town, and was off to the races, as this graph from June 6th reflects:

On June 12th, Doctor Antonino Gonzalez, one of only a handful of doctors who practice in Immokalee, told the local Fox News affiliate,“If people don’t take this seriously, we’re going to have a lot of dead people in here.”

And today, the picture has only grown more desperate.  According to the Naples Daily News:

There is no slowdown to the escalating cases in Immokalee, which stood at a cumulative of 1,207 cases Thursday, more than double the 488 cases reported three weeks ago, according to state data.

“It’s a huge spike of active cases,” Leiner [of Global Response Management, an international relief organization launching anti-COVID efforts in Immokalee] said. “It has the potential to be catastrophic.”

There are simply no two ways about it: State and county health authorities dragged their feet on testing in Immokalee, and the delay allowed the virus to spread virtually unencumbered through the vulnerable farmworker community for nearly two months.  

Meanwhile, free drive-up testing began in the coastal cities of Ft. Myers and Naples weeks earlier than in Immokalee, and the results from the disparate treatment of the communities – what one might call the “general public” on the coasts and the inland farmworker communities – was entirely predictable.  From the Washington Post:

As of June 10, the Florida Department of Health, Division of Disease Control and Health Protection reported 899 positive cases in the Immokalee Zip code, out of roughly 2,500 tests conducted in the rural town. That is a 36 percent positive rate, far higher than the current 5.58 percent positive rate for those tested in Florida overall, and much higher than wealthier areas of Collier County.

On the other side of the county, in Naples’ 34102 Zip code, the 15th wealthiest Zip code in the country with a population of 15,544, there have been only 76 cases of covid-19.

But not only were public health authorities too slow to begin testing in Immokalee, their efforts at contact tracing and social isolation – the critical other 2/3 of the epidemiological trinity – have been equally dilatory.  

Ineffective, inaccessible contact tracing, isolation shelters…

Testing is only as effective at containing the spread of a deadly virus in a community as the isolation and contact tracing that follow it.

Testing is designed with two purposes in mind: 1) to help the individual tested to know that he or she is sick and needs to self-isolate to not transmit the virus, and 2) to help public health officials to know who has the virus and therefore reach out to those who are most likely to contract it next as his or her contacts, to curb its spread.  

That means testing is only an indicator, raw information, like a light on a stove top telling you the burner is hot.  What you do next – stay clear of the danger, turn the burner off – is what determines whether you get burned or remain unharmed.  Testing is inert data to inform action, not an action in and of itself.  The all-important actions to protect public health are contact tracing and self-isolation.

While the story of testing in Immokalee may have been one of “too little, too late”, we can report that, as of today, steady, community-wide testing is finally in place here and people throughout the community, shaken by the wildfire spread of the virus through town, are taking advantage of the opportunity to learn their individual status, symptomatic and non-symptomatic alike.  But the same cannot be said when it comes to contact tracing and self-isolation.  Collier County Commissioner Bill McDaniel, whose district includes Immokalee, spoke with the Naples Daily News at the end of May on contact tracing efforts in Immokalee:

McDaniel cautioned the health department doesn’t have adequate staffing for contact tracing and is still training workers to do it. 

“It won’t be staffed up until the first of June,” he said. “I think the health department is doing the best they can with what they have to work with.”

The experience in the farmworker community reflected Commissioner McDaniel’s concern.  From The Washington Post:

Oscar Otzoy, a former farmworker who is now an organizer with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, says testing agencies aren’t asking contact-tracing questions or telling workers how or how long to self-isolate, when they call to deliver the results of positive tests.

“After that clinic took place in May and people received the calls with positive results, they were told to just stay home,” Otzoy said through a translator. “In terms of what growers have been offering workers, there hasn’t been a whole lot of help to those workers who tested positive. That’s something we’re starting to see as more and more people get sick, people are not being given a lot of information and are being left to fend for themselves.”

Elbin Perez, an Immokalee resident who contracted the virus in May, told the same story from personal experience to the Guardian:

Elbin Perez of Immokalee, who contracted the virus in May, poses outside his home with his wife, Yecenia Solorzano, and their two children. Photograph: Michael Adno/The Guardian

After a volatile night of sleep, Elbin Sales Pérez, 31, a farmworker and landscaper, woke to chills and a fever, a debilitating headache and a pain behind his eyes that he couldn’t gather words for. That morning, he cut west across State Road 82 for 40 miles from Immokalee to a testing site in Ft Myers. He returned home and isolated himself from his wife and two children. “It was a really horrible time for me,” he said.

As the hands of the clock spun, he called the department of health trying to discern whether his results were available, and online, he anxiously reloaded the page, hoping to receive any semblance of an answer. Six days later after a string of unanswered calls, he reached a stranger who told him that he tested positive for Covid-19. As his mind reeled, he thought, “What am I going to do next? Where am I going to go?” He thought of his kids and when he could return to work…

… Of course, Pérez informed his employer, and all his co-workers have since been tested and are awaiting results, but as he told me. “We’re still waiting.” His wife, too, was met with recorded messages and an online portal leading nowhere.

… What shocked him was that with the unprecedented technological advances in America, “There really isn’t a way to get results in a timely manner,” he said. “We need medical attention and resources here in Immokalee. This community is so important, because it’s where a lot of the fruits and vegetables that feed the country come from.”

Despite the massive spike in positive cases in Immokalee, and despite the living and working conditions here that the perfect Petri dish for high-speed transmission, state and county public health efforts at contact tracing, have been, if anything, even less timely or effective than were their efforts at testing, and public resources for self-isolation in Immokalee only came online in the past two weeks – fully three months into the pandemic – and thus far it is unclear to many residents how it could be accessed.  Local public health officials are only now working to develop a community health worker program for Immokalee, investing in public health educators trained to reach the farmworker community with life-saving information about how to prevent catching, and spreading, the virus, for the first time since the pandemic began.

Where do we go from here?…

Several months ago, a serial murderer who had ravaged communities around the country and around the globe announced that he would be bringing his bloody craft to Immokalee.  True to his word, he arrived in March, and since then he has been on the loose, devastating the community virtually unencumbered.  Despite the desperate pleas of the people for help, the police stood by and watched for nearly two months.  Only in the past month have the forces charged with protecting the community of Immokalee managed to start a real body count.  And only in the past weeks have they put any real troops in the streets to confront the killer, though thus far even those efforts have been halting and half-hearted.

Farmworkers in immokalee wait abroad a crowded bus in the early morning to leave for the fields.

We can only speculate as to why the response by state and local political leaders and public health officials to the novel coronavirus in Immokalee has been so maddeningly slow, and passive, though the governor’s recent comments on farmworkers may shed some light on the mindset behind the sluggish efforts to protect our state’s essential agricultural workers.   

But the fact of that failure to act — and, once efforts were finally set into motion, to act effectively — is beyond dispute. And the failure of our public officials in the face of this deadly virus is measured, every day more, in the unnecessary suffering and death of people – mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters, Brunacia CoblasPaulino Salinas Cortez, and many more – here in Immokalee, and in farmworker communities around the state.  

What is done – or better said, was not done – is done.  We can’t change that now.  What we do next, however, is up to us. 

The final story of the COVID-19 pandemic in Immokalee remains to be written.  Most observers say that we have yet to see the end of the first wave of contagion, and that the fall will bring a second wave quite possibly every bit as devastating.  The fall will also bring the return to Immokalee of farmworkers from the summer season up north, swelling the town’s population again and filling its overcrowded housing and buses with essential workers tasked with keeping fresh fruits and vegetables on our tables.  

We simply can’t afford to make the same mistake twice.  Our state’s political leaders and public health officials are on notice.  This spring, they had an opportunity to step up and protect farmworkers and other low-wage workers in Florida, and they failed.  We are seeing the results of that failure now.

This fall, they will be presented with a second chance to get it right.  We can only hope that they will use the coming summer months wisely, mobilizing immediately to respond to the present crisis and, in the process, putting the testing, contact tracing, and isolation resources in place now for the crush all too likely to come again in the fall.