This November, take action with farmworker women on Nov. 20, and bring Fair Food to the table on Thanksgiving!
The holiday season is coming, and with it arrives another busy harvesting season in Southwest Florida. More and more farmworkers are traveling south to their Immokalee homes and activity at the CIW is intensifying. As we move into this stage of our yearly cycle, one often defined by celebration and gratitude for many, it is vital that we as people of faith remain mindful of our responsibility to carry on the work of justice.
We invite allies to take action on Nov. 20 in solidarity with farmworker women advancing the “Harvest without Violence” campaign to end sexual abuse in Wendy’s supply chain, and then to bring Fair Food to the Thanksgiving table at the end of the month with reflection and prayer resources we’ve put together.
That day, farmworker women will be travelling to New York City to bring the invitation to support human rights in the fields, directly to the doorstep of Mr. Peltz’s offices in Midtown Manhattan. For over a month, both Mr. Peltz and Mr. Todd Penegor, Wendy’s CEO, have ignored the CIW’s letter requesting a dialogue to end sexual violence in Wendy’s supply chain. As Board Chair and as chair of Wendy's Corporate Social Responsibility Board Committee, Mr. Peltz should be upholding real human rights for farmworkers instead of an illusory Supplier Code of Conduct that excludes workers' voices and lacks consequences for abuses. Sexual violence and other human rights abuses are shockingly widespread — and unacceptable — in the Mexican farms from which Wendy's is currently purchasing tomatoes.
Then, on Thanksgiving Day, celebrate and give thanks for the contribution of farmworkers to the dinner table – and recall all that still remains to be done in order to bring justice to the fields – using this short pamphlet of Thanksgiving resources compiled by AFF allies.
Included among the resources are faith-specific prayers and a guided reflection for families to use around their dinner table. It is essential in the expression of thanks for certain freedoms and material comforts to remember that our well-being is not individually won, nor is it produced from nothing. The ingredients for our feasts are cultivated by many hands, and the acknowledgement of and appreciation for the people that work for our ability to nourish ourselves and our family is essential to affirming the humanity of the workers thanks to whom our society is built.
Beyond that, we express our commitment to bringing human rights to the workplace, so that all harvests may be realized without violence and without structural harm. The Thanksgiving prayers and reflection also recommit us to bring Wendy’s and Publix to the table of justice.
Download AFF’s Thanksgiving Resources and share them with your community in time for the holidays! Then, keep an eye out for sample social media posts to share and tweet on the week of Thanksgiving.
With hope,
The Immokalee Crew