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.
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!