CIW, Sodexo reach agreement

Student/Farmworker Alliance

August 23, 2010 – 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.

Read the reaction from the CIW and the joint CIW/Sodexo statement here.

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 immense college and university food service industry support principles of Fair Food — has come to a successful conclusion. Just as in the monumental Boot the Bell campaign, student organizing on campuses across the country proved decisive in bringing some of the world’s largest food corporations to the table.

Click here to revisit some of the highlights from the Dine with Dignity campaign.

Although this chapter has come to a close, we’re not done yet. Company by company we’re building a path toward a better world for farmworkers and consumers alike. The supermarket industry, however, stubbornly stands in the way of this dream being fully fulfilled.

Grocery chains such as Publix, Ahold (parent company of Stop & Shop and Giant supermarkets), Kroger, Trader Joe’s, and Wal-Mart must also come to the table.

With triumphant wind in our sails, the national SFA network — battle-tested through ten years of successful organizing — will be bringing the fight for fair food to these supermarkets’ doorsteps, beginning this September when dozens of SFA leaders converge in Immokalee for the 2010 Strategy Retreat focused on the supermarket campaign. Stay tuned for what promises to be a Fall season to remember…