Earlier this month, Nashville Fair Food turned up the decibel on the Publix campaign by taking Publix manager letter deliveries to a whole new level: they would host the “Amazing Race for Farmworker Justice” and hit all 30 stores in the Middle Tennessee area in a single day.

Their goal was to be able to talk to their Publix managers — local to local, away from corporate officials who travel from Florida to intercept the delegations at announced pickets — about why Publix needs to join the Fair Food Program.

Nashville Fair Food expected a response from Publix, of course, but they didn’t know the lengths to which they would go. Two days before the action, Publix went so far as to hire attorneys, who sent letters to Nashville Fair Food and the CIW warning them in so many words that Publix would be ready to arrest customers simply for trying to talk to their local manager.

In response, Nashville Fair Food created a powerful new social media campaign posing the prompt, “If Publix listened to all customers, I would have said…” Read the full play-by-play and check out the dozens of creative messages Nashville residents sent in response!

Meanwhile, on Monday, a coalition of Ohioans gathered outside the opening of the newest Wendy’s near the Ohio State University (OSU) campus, cutting the proverbial ribbon — and the afternoon air — with unflinching demands for Fair Food. The action came just one month after the Student/Farmworker Alliance (SFA) took to the stage at the Concert for Fair Food before thousands to announce a national student boycott of Wendy’s, to begin at none other than OSU, Wendy’s hometown university.

The declaration was not just a local announcement of the boycott, however, as OSU student and SFA steering committee member, Amanda Ferguson, says, but also “a call to action going out to thousands of students across the country to boycott Wendy's until they, too, are part of the solution.” And so this weekend, students all around the country are heeding that call by planning actions at their local Wendy’s, with some twenty universities slated to participate.

The chorus calling on Wendy’s and Publix is only growing louder this spring! Stay tuned to hear how it all rolls out…