TAKE ACTION: Wendy’s Boycott National Day of Prayer and Fasting on Friday, March 24

On Friday, March 24, as many in our network are engaged in reflection and sacrifice leading up to Easter and Passover, we invite consumers of conscience and communities of faith to participate in a National Day of Prayer and Fasting in solidarity with the 19 Ohio State University students and allies fasting to advance their campaign to cut Wendy’s campus lease with The Ohio State University.

On March 24 at 4:00pm EST dozens of farmworkers from Immokalee will join fasters and national religious leaders in a Vigil for Human Rights outside of Wendy’s corporate headquarters, kicking off a weekend of action in Columbus, OH as the CIW’s multi-state Return to Human Rights Tour meets up hundreds upon hundreds of fair food supporters converging from across the country in Wendy’s hometown.  The weekend of action will culminate with a Parade for Human Rights on Sunday, March 26 that will make its way from Goodale Park to OSU for a Fast-breaking Ceremony.

Students called the weeklong fast after the University broke its promise to OSU students to terminate Wendy’s campus lease unless the concerns of the Ohio State Student/Farmworker Alliance were fulfilled. That is – unless Wendy’s joins the Fair Food Program. Shamefully, instead of cutting the contract, the University has extended Wendy’s lease for another 6 months.

Students will begin their fast on Monday, March 20, to intensify what has been a three-year call to OSU to stop doing business with Wendy’s. This call’s urgency lies in the retailer’s decision to pull its tomato purchasing from Florida growers in the Fair Food Program that are upholding workers’ rights, and source instead from growers in Mexico where there have been documented human rights abuses including forced labor and child labor.

Beginning on Monday, March 20 and continuing throughout the week, fasters will have a daily presence outside OSU’s administration building as well as at Wendy’s Dublin headquarters, where they will be joined by local clergy, OSU professors, and community leaders. The fast will be broken at OSU’s campus on Sunday, March 26 in the presence of hundreds of farmworkers and allies from across the country at the conclusion of the tour’s Parade for Human Rights through downtown Columbus. You can visit the Student/Farmworker Alliance’s website for a full list of the 19 OSU undergraduates, graduate students, and alumni fasting to Boot the Braids from campus.

Support for the Wendy’s Boycott National Day of Prayer and Fasting:

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) issued a statement on March 15th expressing the church’s strong support of the student fast at OSU. From the article on presbyterianmission.org: “We are encouraging Presbyterians around the country to pray for the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the fasters in Columbus on March 24, the National Day of Prayer and Fasting,” added the Rev. Rebecca Barnes, coordinator of the Presbyterian Hunger Program.”

People across the Alliance for Fair Food are called on to participate in the National Day of Prayer and Fasting by committing to a full or partial fast on Friday, March 24 to the struggle of farmworkers and allies who hunger for justice from Wendy’s, the only major fast food chain still not participating in the CIW’s Fair Food Program.

We urge you to amplify your prayers and fasting by writing a letter about your action to Todd Penegor, Wendy’s CEO at 1 Dave Thomas Boulevard, Dublin, OH 43017. Then, please document your actions on social media (#BoycottWendys, @Wendys, #FairFoodProgram) or a local publication to share the news of the Wendy’s Boycott with your community! And finally – if you’re able to join us in Columbus on Sunday, March 26, for the Parade for Human Rights ending on OSU’s campus, register your participation today!

Let us know how you’ll be participating in the National Day of Prayer and Fasting on Friday, March 24 by filling out the form below, and stay tuned for reports from the Return to Human Rights Tour stops on our way to Columbus!

In Atlanta, Georgia, the Return to Human Rights Tour unites with social justice movements, past and present!

Yesterday, the CIW's Return to Human Rights Tour spent a full and meaningful day in Atlanta, Georgia. On Day 2 of the tour, participants immersed themselves in the city's rich legacy within the American civil rights movement and joined forces with allies from across the Georgia to continue writing history in the long struggle for freedom and human rights. That is, in the words of Atlanta's Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to continue bending the arc of the moral universe toward justice.

After visiting Atlanta's Center for Civil and Human Rights in the morning, and connecting with old and new supporters at Berea Mennonite Church, Emory University, and Grace United Methodist Church, the tour crew headed to Wendy's for a strong, evening rush hour picket outside Wendy's in the heart of the city.  

Check out the CIW's website to watch a beautiful video of the day's events and reflections, and to view photos from the nearly 100-strong protest and final, moving Boycott Wendy's rally!

CIW's Return to Human Rights Tour hits the ground running with a vibrant Boot the Braids march through UF!

And we're off! Yesterday morning, the CIW's Return to Human Rights Tour left Immokalee and hit the road to arrive at the tour's first stop in Gainesville, FL, home to the University of Florida. A Fair Food stronghold since the early years of the campaign (and birthplace to the Fair Food youth movement and the Student/Farmworker Alliance), students welcomed the tour crew with open arms and powerful lungs ready to amplify the growing Wendy's Boycott and UF's ongoing "Boot the Braids" campaign. 

Like students at the Ohio State University, whose quickly approaching 6-day fast was powerfully and publicly supported by the Presbyterian Church (USA) two days ago, students at UF are currently calling on their university to cut its contract with the Wendy's restaurant on campus. A unified coalition of students, Gainesville community members, and allies from as far as Georgia and Indiana joined the CIW for a colorful march through campus ending with an energetic picket outside the very Wendy's students are attempting to boot. 

Head over to the CIW's website for the full photo report for a play by play of the tour's first action splash! 

Stay tuned for more as the tour criss-crosses the Southeast and the Midwest on its way to Wendy's hometown of Columbus, OH, and as nearly two dozen OSU students and Columbus community members prepare to start their fast in solidarity with farmworkers next week!

BREAKING: OSU students, Columbus community announce weeklong fast in lead-up to Return to Human Rights Tour!

“We are fasting in solidarity with farmworkers who have had to go hungry while harvesting the food we all eat because of Wendy’s indifference to their exploitation …”

In a major escalation in the Wendy’s Boycott, members of Ohio Fair Food announced this morning that they will begin a weeklong fast on March 20 in preparation for the arrival of the CIW’s Return to Human Rights Tour in Columbus, OH.  As hundreds upon hundreds prepare to converge on Wendy’s hometown from March 24-26 for the tour's major weekend of action —culminating in a massive Parade for Human Rights through the streets of Columbus — community members and The Ohio State University students will be engaging in the proud tradition of fasting as a form of peaceful protest to express solidarity with farmworkers who have had to go hungry because of Wendy’s indifference to their suffering.  

Each day of the week leading up to the Parade, fasters will deliver the demand that Wendy’s join the Fair Food Program to their Dublin headquarters.  In fasting outside of the OSU administration building, students will also draw attention to the University’s failure to abide by its commitment to end its contract with Wendy’s should Wendy’s not meet criteria for farmworkers’ human rights set by OSU Student/Farmworker Alliance.

Ohio Fair Food asks us, “What are we really hungry for?”  Check out their full announcement below:

Columbus! What are we hungry for?

Columbus community to launch fast calling for farmworker justice, human rights for all, from fast-food giant Wendy’s: We’d rather go hungry than eat fast-food that exploits farmworkers. 

On March 20th, we will launch a weeklong fast outside of the headquarters of the local fast food giant, Wendy’s.  We will be fasting to demand that Wendy’s respect the fundamental human rights of farmworkers in their supply chain by joining the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ Fair Food Program.  We are fasting in solidarity with farmworkers who have had to go hungry while harvesting the food we all eat because of Wendy’s indifference to their exploitation.  We are fasting in a long tradition of taking peaceful action to make clear the responsibility Wendy’s has to their hometown of Columbus.  On March 24th, we will receive CIW members as they arrive to Columbus for theReturn to Human Rights Tour, a national mobilization to demand dignity for farmworkers and lift up struggles for human rights across the nation. 

 It has been four years since farmworkers and consumers launched a public campaign against Wendy’s.  But rather than respond to our demand to join CIW’s award-winning Fair Food Program, Wendy’s decided to move their purchases to Mexico, where child labor, sexual violence, modern-day slavery, and other human rights abuses are endemic and go effectively unchecked.  Wendy’s cynically offers consumers the fig leaf of a corporate Code of Conduct --devoid of any actual enforcement or worker participation -- as an alternative to the verifiable, worker-led protections of the Fair Food Program, a program recognized as the gold standard for social responsibility today for its unique success in addressing and preventing abuses in the agriculture industry. 

Wendy’s calls Columbus their hometown.  With attacks on the human rights of immigrants, people of color, women, LGBTQ communities, and so many others on the rise here and around the country, Wendy’s represents the worst of corporate greed locally and nationally.  Through funding political campaigns built on a platform of division and hate, and partnering with local developers on projects that drive Columbus’s most vulnerable communities from their homes, Wendy’s has failed its own community as completely as it has failed the women and men who harvest the fresh produce in their supply chain. 

 To reshape our city’s politics and win human rights for farmworkers, we need Wendy’s to take responsibility for their impact in the communities where they do business.  This spring, we must hold Wendy’s accountable and demand that they join the Fair Food Program once and for all. 

With our fast, we are asking ourselves and our community, “What are we are really hungry for?”  We are fasting for farmworker justice. We are fasting to show those in power who attempt to wait us out, who stall until we are tired and out of resources, that they can’t starve our movement. 

Our fast will begin on Monday, March 20th. Throughout the week, we will be fasting with a presence at Wendy’s Headquarters and with students on Ohio State’s campus, where the administration continues to stall on fulfilling its own promise to students to terminate OSU’s contract with Wendy’s unless it joined the Fair Food Program.

And we are inviting you to join us.

 The Coalition of Immokalee Workers tour bus will reach Dublin on March 24 at 3:30 p.m., joining forces with fasters and Columbus-area allies for a powerful vigil outside of Wendy’s Headquarters.  We will break our fast on Sunday, March 26, along with thousands of farmworkers, Columbus-area allies and people convening from across the country to march in the Parade for Human Rights, which begins in Goodale Park at 1:00 p.m. 

Join us in showing Wendy’s that they can’t starve our movement. It’s time for us to come together in our fight for dignity, justice, liberation: human rights for all.

Email us at OhioForFairFood@gmail.com to get involved! 

Who doesn’t love a parade?… CIW launches call for artwork ahead of Parade for Human Rights!

Just two years ago, the CIW and thousands of allies flooded the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, for a massive and unforgettable Parade and Concert for Fair Food.  Replete with stunningly colorful floats and billowing painted parachutes…

… as well as dozens of homemade banners representing communities from across the country, the 2015 parade combined the exuberance of a hometown festival with the irresistible demand for justice of the Campaign for Fair Food.

Art at the crossroads of joy and justice has long been a hallmark of the movement for Fair Food.  And the herculean amount of cutting, taping, painting, printing, and sewing that goes into a typical CIW major action is only ever possible with the help of many hands and many creative minds.  But this year, we need even more hands on deck for the Parade for Human Rights in Columbus, Ohio! 

Now just one month out from the culmination of the Return to Human Rights Tour in Wendy’s hometown, the finishing touches are being added to what promises to be a whirlwind weekend of action!  We will kick off the weekend with a powerful vigil on Friday, March 24, to be held directly outside Wendy’s headquarters in Dublin, Ohio.  On Saturday, as allies pour into Columbus from all corners of the AFF network, Ohio Fair Food and CIW will host a “World Café” conference and concert, digging deeper into the national Wendy's Boycott as well as learn from other justice movements across the U.S. (featuring, of course, an original Immokalee popular education theater piece — stay tuned!).

Finally, as the centerpiece of the weekend’s events, thousands of allies will gather at the heart of Columbus on Sunday, March 26 for the Parade for Human Rights.  The Parade will weave through downtown and straight into the campus of The Ohio State University, where students are building a Boot the Braids Campaign that grows stronger by the day. Together, we will unmask Wendy’s in its own hometown, and call on Wendy’s join the Fair Food Program. 

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To make the Parade as big and beautiful as possible, Immokalee workers are calling on all Fair Food groups, congregations, university groups, and any and every parade participant to join the national art team.  Whether you want to make a banner, or create a magnificent float,  to represent your community in the Parade for Human Rights, we welcome your creative talent. Download the CIW’s official invitation to join the art team — we have it both in English and Spanish! — and get in touch with the Immokalee-based crew to let us know what you’re planning.  

And, of course, whether you come equipped with artwork or not, we look forward to seeing you in Columbus on March 26th!  If you haven’t had a chance to register your group, your caravan, or yourself as an individual participant, make sure to do so over at the Wendy’s Boycott website.  And while you’re at it, check out the list of caravans and buses as they make plans to head to Columbus next month.

To close, we have some final words from CIW’s Leonel Perez, who has spent the past month in nonstop presentations and meetings in Ohio and across the Midwest to get the word out about the upcoming parade:

“Consciousness + Commitment = Change.  Again, I want to thank you all for participating in today’s meeting.  You help to give us the strength to continue fighting.  Thanks to the participation of allies to the CIW, farmworkers’ rights exist.  We have to keep the Campaign going — we have to move Wendy’s to do the right thing!”

We're hiring staff and interns to join us at the heart of the Wendy’s Boycott! 

The struggle for fundamental human rights in our food system is far from over, and our work in the Campaign for Fair Food is more important than ever before.

Apply now to join the ally team in Immokalee! 

AFF STAFF POSITION
The Alliance for Fair Food is seeking an Immokalee-based staff member to co-coordinate the involvement of people of faith in the national Campaign for Fair Food in direct partnership with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. Alongside students and youth, food justice and women’s rights advocates and community groups, people of faith from a number of traditions and denominations represent a central constituency in the vibrant, multi-generational Alliance for Fair Food.  Consider applying or encouraging someone you know to apply! Join the Immokalee team in working on one of the most dynamic and successful struggles for justice of our day.

Areas of work include:

  • Coordination of the AFF network, with a focus on faith organizing:
    • Campaign strategy
    • National mobilizations
    • Education, outreach and leadership development
    • Organizing with a broad network of organizations and individuals, including but not limited to people of faith
  • Organizational operations (fundraising, communications, etc.)
  • Support for the CIW staff and the farmworker community in Immokalee

Read the full description, and contact us at organize@allianceforfairfood.org to request an application. Deadline for staff application is April 15, 2017.

AFF INTERNSHIP
We’re hiring summer and fall interns to support the ally team in organizing with a diverse array of Fair Food allies across the country and work side-by-side with CIW staff to provide on-the-ground support for the farmworker community in Immokalee. Responsibilities include development of campaign strategy, helping to coordinate direct actions and assistance with office tasks and projects. A minimum commitment of 3-5 months is preferred; start date is flexible. Interns receive free housing and a modest monthly stipend. 

Apply today! Deadline for the summer and fall internship application is April 15, 2017.

Given our commitment to developing a diverse leadership, we strongly encourage people of color, women, working-class, LGBTQ, gender non-conforming, and differently-abled people to apply for both the staff and internship positions.

If you have any interest or know someone who you think may be a good fit, please forward this to them and reach out to us! You can write us at organize@allianceforfairfood.org or call Shelby at 239-675-9234. 

We are looking forward to receiving your application!

SPECIAL DELIVERY: Boycott Wendy’s Valentines swamp CEO Todd Penegor’s mailbox!

People from every corner of the Fair Food Nation celebrated Valentine’s Day last week by taking to their pens and paper to show their support for the Wendy's Boycott! With scissors, glue and construction paper at hand, stalwart members of Fair Food Groups and students at campuses with burgeoning Boot the Braids campaigns, among countless other allies in the AFF network, crafted hundreds of Fair Food Valentines for Wendy’s CEO Todd Penegor. 

The resounding message, delivered directly to Mr. Penegor's offices at Wendy's headquarters in Dublin, OH, was more than an urgent call for the executive to melt Wendy's frosty heart and commit the restaurant to respecting the fundamental human rights of farmworkers. It was also a chilling reminder that if the company fails to join the Fair Food Program within the month, thousands of farmworkers and allies will descend upon the streets of Columbus in a tremendous Parade for Human Rights on March 26 at the culmination of the CIW’s Return to Human Rights Tour. 

Check out the photo selection from the Wendy’s Boycott blitz this Valentine’s Day:

FAIR FOOD GROUPS
Members of Ohio Fair Food, Nashville Fair Food, Montclair Fair Food Alliance, Ann Arbor Solidarity with Farmworkers Collective, DC Fair Food and Tampa Bay Fair Food

BOOT THE BRAIDS SCHOOLS
The Ohio State University, University of Florida, Vanderbilt University and Florida Atlantic University

From Florida to New York to Idaho, allies in the struggle for farmworker justice gathered in congregations, classrooms and community spaces to pen their V-Day messages to Mr. Penegor! 

With Valentines sealed and delivered, the Fair Food Nation continues full speed ahead in mobilizing for the Return to Human Rights Tour. Be sure to register your group today to join farmworkers for the major stops in Columbus and Tampa — and donate to help CIW raise $10,000 to send farmworkers on the 2,000-mile journey to advance the Wendy’s Boycott. 

And as you make plans to join CIW on tour, keep an eye out in the coming days for big news coming out of the Fair Food Nation!

Get on the bus! Meet CIW at the culmination of the Return to Human Rights Tour in Columbus!

One month from today, a bus of farmworkers from Immokalee and their allies will be embarking on a 2,000-mile trek through more than a dozen U.S. cities for the monumental Return to Human Rights Tour. The CIW is ready to share its signature energy and message of hope and resilience with thousands of students, people of faith and community allies who will meet them in unstoppable action to advance the national Wendy's Boycott along every stop of the way. 

If we are to keep building a broad and inclusive movement to protect the fundamental human rights of farmworkers, and of all people at the center of struggles for justice, this kind of long-lasting vision and persistence will be needed to pull us through this uncertain moment, and to bring Wendy's into the Fair Food Program.

So, if you're ready to join the CIW from March 24-26 for the tour's culminating weekend of action — featuring a powerful vigil outside of Wendy's headquarters in Dublin, OH, an unforgettable World Café-style gathering at The Ohio State University and a tremendous, lively Parade for Human Rights through the streets of downtown Columbus — reserve your spot on a bus or caravan today!   

Check out the most updated list of buses and caravans leaving from DC, Boston, Ann Arbor, Cleveland, Sarasota and many more cities over at the Wendy’s Boycott website!   

Don’t see your city? Get in touch at organize@allianceforfairfood.org to start coordinating your own caravan. 

And if you're in Florida, make plans to join hundreds of farmworkers and allies for the tour's grand finale: a march and vigil for human rights in Tampa, FL, on March 29! We will finalize the tour calling on both Wendy's and Publix Supermarkets to ensure dignity and respect for farmworkers in their supply chains by joining the Fair Food Program. 

See you soon!

TOMORROW: Send a Fair Food Valentine to Wendy’s CEO Todd Penegor! 

Yesterday, farmworker mothers and their children kicked off the national Valentine’s Day of Action in Immokalee by crafting dozens of heart-shaped boycott messages and an oversized Fair Food Valentine to drop in the mail for Wendy’s CEO Todd Penegor. Before leaving their cards at the post office, the spirited group headed over to the Wendy’s restaurant in town to make sure the local manager, too, was made aware of the burgeoning national boycott. Once inside, however, they were given the cold shoulder. 

Speaking of frosty... it’s no secret that Wendy’s spends millions trying to convince consumers that what sets them apart from those “Othr Guyz” — a thinly-veiled identity Wendy’s created with reference to competitors like McDonald’s and Burger King — is their fresh, never frozen beef. But how does Wendy’s stack up against those same competitors when it comes to human rights violations in their supply chain? 

In case you missed it, CIW brilliantly exposes this stone-cold contradiction in a must-see, 30-second adbust of Wendy’s Super Bowl commercial, which has racked up a whopping 17,000 views since the big game. With the same $5 million Wendy's spent on half a minute of airtime, they could have funded at least five years of fairer wages and dignified working conditions for farmworkers through their participation in the Fair Food Program.

This Valentine’s Day, join the Fair Food Nation in letting Mr. Penegor know that we’re not buying any of it — literally. For inspiration in crafting your Valentine to Wendy’s top executive, check out these creative action resources. Be sure to take a picture with your V-Day card and upload it to social media using #BoycottWendys and tagging @Wendys before you mail it to Mr. Penegor: 

Mr. Todd A. Penegor
The Wendy’s Company, Inc. 
One Dave Thomas Boulevard
Dublin, OH 43017

And send us a report of how things went at organize@allianceforfairfood.org!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Return to Human Rights Tour website is live – register today to join CIW at a major tour stop!

The Return to Human Rights Tour is less than two months away! As the 14-day, 10-city tour approaches, Immokalee becomes an ever-busier hub of planning, organizing and art-making. Just yesterday, farmworkers gathered for February’s “Comité Central” worker meeting in Immokalee to escalate organizing in the community in the lead-up to the tour. Across the country, advance organizing teams are settling in for weeks of nonstop presentations and meetings, spreading news of the Wendy’s Boycott and fueling the growing excitement for next month’s action. 

Allies are mobilizing their congregations, campuses, communities and Fair Food Groups nationwide to converge in Columbus, OH – Wendy’s hometown – for the tour’s culminating weekend of action on March 24-26, including a powerful vigil at Wendy’s headquarters and a lively human rights parade in downtown Columbus! In Florida, allies are additionally organizing for the tour’s finale: a march and vigil in downtown Tampa, FL on March 29 calling on both Publix and Wendy’s to end their disregard for farmworkers' human rights. 

Check out the Wendy’s Boycott website for the tour’s full schedule and register TODAY to join farmworkers on this historic tour! Keep an eye on it in the weeks ahead, as we update it with more opportunities to support the tour and the Wendy’s Boycott.

If you’re interested in joining an existing caravan, bus, or carpool – or planning your own! – to take action in a major tour stop, get in touch at organize@allianceforfairfood.org.

And after you’ve done that, head over to the CIW’s website to read more on farmworkers’ own rendition of Wendy’s Super Bowl 2017 commercial – a $5 million expense that could have funded more than five years of the company’s participation in the Fair Food Program. In less than 24 hours, the Fair Food Nation’s spoof has racked up over 7,000 views and hundreds of shares. Help us make it go viral, as we prepare to unfreeze Wendy's frosty heart right in the company's hometown in March!

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