Fair Food Austin: It's a wrap! CIW, Sodexo reach agreement to improve farmworker wages, working conditions!

August 24, 2010

It's a wrap! CIW, Sodexo reach agreement to improve farmworker wages, working conditions!

Students celebrate resounding success of "Dine with Dignity" campaign; call on supermarket industry to follow suit!

Yet another chapter in the historic alliance between students and farmworkers has been written today, as Sodexo becomes the fourth leading food service provider (following Bon Appetit Management Co., Compass Group, and Aramark) and ninth corporation overall to heed the demands of the Campaign for Fair Food and partner with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to systematically root out poverty and abuse from Florida's fields.

With this victory, the Student/Farmworker Alliance 's Dine with Dignity campaign -- launched just 16 months ago with the goal of organizing student power to demand the college and university food service industry support principles of Fair Food -- has come to a successful conclusion. Although this chapter has come to a close, we're not done yet!

Read more here!

Who We Are

Since 2001, Fair Food Austin has organized with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) for fair wages and dignified working conditions in the U.S. agricultural industry. The CIW is a farmworker organization headquartered in Immokalee, Florida with over 4,000 members. The CIW has aided in the prosecution by the Department of Justice of six slavery operations and the liberation of well over 1,000 workers.

We use creative methods to educate consumers about the human rights crisis farmworkers face and to promote the Campaign for Fair Food. The campaign requires large food corporations -- from Taco Bell to Whole Foods -- to demand more humane labor standards from their Florida tomato suppliers, to pay a premium price for more fairly produced tomatoes, and to buy only from growers who meet those higher standards.

Brutal conditions in Florida's fields may seem distant to consumers deep in the heart of Texas, but many of the restaurant and supermarket chains that have helped create this crisis are present in our community and buy Florida tomatoes at some point during the year. Human rights are universal, and by working together, farmworkers and consumers can create a better world.