Twenty years ago, the Presidential Medal-winning Fair Food Program was still a distant dream in the minds of farmworkers from Immokalee who, at the time, were on the cusp of signing the first-ever Fair Food agreement with Taco Bell, calling on the fast-food giant to take responsibility for the exploitation of farmworkers at the bottom of its supply chain. Driven by their lived experience in the fields -- and backed by a national network of allies who shared their vision for long-overdue, worker-driven change -- those farmworkers went on to sign with Taco Bell in March of 2005, setting the pieces in motion for the launch of the Fair Food Program five years later in 2010. Now, the FFP not only protects tens of thousands of farmworkers across the US, Chile, and South Africa, but the groundbreaking program also serves as a blueprint for workers around the world to guarantee their own essential human rights in industries from construction to seafood.
And the scale of change coming out of Immokalee is increasing at an exponential rate. Indeed, the year 2024 saw the greatest expansion ever of the fast-growing Fair Food Program, as well as the broader Worker-driven Social Responsibility (WSR) model pioneered by the CIW's FFP.
This past year, the United States Department of Agriculture recognized the Fair Food Program as the highest level (“Platinum”) of human rights protection in the US agricultural industry, and offered over $15 million in federal grants to farms that commit to joining the program. This unprecedented government support rapidly accelerated the FFP's national expansion, catapulting the FFP to new heights. At the same time, worker organizations around the world, taking note of the concrete gains the program has secured for farmworkers, were traveling to Immokalee to learn from the CIW how to adapt and launch WSR programs of their own. From fishers and skippers from Scotland to Chilean salmon workers and more, the CIW hosted delegations of workers to the birthplace of the WSR model for advice from its architects on building their own programs for systemic change.
But that's not all.
Two monumental victories -- each years in the making -- gave us all the more reason to celebrate this past year as a pivotal moment in the story of WSR. First, Levi's, one of the largest and best known fashion brands in the world, signed onto the legally binding Pakistan Accord, which protects over a million garment workers in that country. Second, two Minnesota-based housing developers have signed similar, WSR-inspired agreements with the Centro De Trabajadores Unidos En La Lucha (CTUL). The latter news means that CTUL will soon begin implementing the world's first WSR program for construction workers in Minnesota, while the former greatly expands the market-backed power of the Pakistan Accord.
All of these developments tell the same remarkable story: WSR, born in the fields of Florida and designed by farmworkers from Immokalee, is the new paradigm for safeguarding the fundamental rights of supply chain workers across industries and national contexts for the 21st century.
To help us fuel the continued expansion of the FFP, and ensure that workers around the world can learn about WSR directly from the farmworkers who pioneered it, we need your help, now more than ever.
In this pivotal moment for all low-wage workers, your donation goes a long way. Every dollar you donate helps us meet the growing demand for our services and support, as we grow the Fair Food Program itself, on the one hand, and train other worker organizations on how to transform their own industries, on the other. In short, your donations help us to usher in nothing short of a human rights revolution.
And now we can stretch your dollar even further! Earlier this year, we received a spectacular matching gift from the NoVo Foundation. With their pledge, the NoVo Foundation will match every donation we receive this year, dollar for dollar, up to $2 million. Now you can double the impact of your donation and help us continue our vital work, not only across the U.S., but across the globe.
Now is the time to donate to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers!
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As hard as it may be to imagine, farmworkers on most farms in the US do not have guaranteed access to clean drinking water, bathrooms, shade, or even habitable housing. Working in the fields, farmworkers are all too often exposed to dangerous pesticides, sweltering summer heat, lightning storms and hurricanes — and if they complain, they can lose the jobs that mark the thin line between their families and abject poverty. To ensure the safety and wellbeing of all farmworkers on Fair Food farms, the FFP’s market-backed standards protect against all of these harsh working conditions. On Fair Food Program […]
On this International Human Rights Day, let’s take a moment to remember the millions of farmworkers across the planet for whom the idea of universal human rights remains, even today, a distant dream. According to Laura Elise Vasquez, Director of Complaint Resolution with the Fair Food Standards Council, “Some of the most challenging calls we get on the Fair Food Program hotline come from farmworkers on non-FFP farms.” Your gift this holiday season to the FFP will help ensure that we continue to expand the FFP to new farms and new states in the year ahead, and as a result, […]
This past year has been an extraordinary one for the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ Fair Food Program and its model of Worker-driven Social Responsibility, marked by unprecedented growth and exciting new milestones achieved that would not have been possible without sustainers like you! Since this time last year, the CIW’s Fair Food Program has nearly doubled in size, both domestically and on the international front, meaning thousands of more workers today enjoy the program’s proven protections, and work in an environment of dignity and respect, than did just one year ago. And at the same time, the FFP and the […]
Sixty years later, are we still bound up in Dr. King’s “single garment of destiny”? Or have its ties worn thin? With Thanksgiving just over a week away – and initial preparations for the holiday feast already underway in homes across the country – it has perhaps never felt more important to pause, take a breath, and reflect on the meaning of the season. Thanksgiving is a time for stepping away from the rush and bustle of every day life and work, to put down our phones and close our laptops, and to focus on the things in life for which […]
A new scholarly paper by a team of environmental experts proposes the expansion of a model originally designed to protect global fisheries from depletion — known collectively as “Fishery Improvement Projects” (FIPs) — to include the protection of fishers’ human rights in the scope of their initiatives; Authors launch “call to action” proposing collaboration between FIPs and Worker-driven Social Responsibility (WSR) efforts with goal of “increas[ing] uptake and implementation of worker-driven, enforceable agreements, and mandatory HRDD [Human Rights Due Diligence] in seafood value chains” Summary: FIPs paper’s authors recognize WSR as uniquely effective for human rights enforcement in global supply chains, […]
NoVo Foundation pledges $2 million matching donation to fuel national, international expansion of the Fair Food Program and growth of the Worker-driven Social Responsibility Model Peter Buffett, Co-President, NoVo Foundation: “The importance of this pivotal moment cannot be overstated. CIW’s transformative model has proven its power to transform the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers in the U.S. and abroad. But they need our help in raising $10 million in the next 24 months to support this exponential increase in demand for their efforts.” IMMOKALEE, FL — The NoVo Foundation has announced an inspirational $2 million matching pledge to support […]
CIW’s Lucas Benitez: “My colleagues and I are here today from Florida… in the company of so many distinguished champions of this great democracy, because Mrs. Kennedy knew it takes all of us, from farmworkers to presidents, to defend the human rights she held so dear.” CIW’s Greg Asbed: “Her embrace of our work in Immokalee connected us to history, to the history of the civil rights movement, to the history of the farmworker movement, to the history of all who have fought to hold this country accountable to its great promise of equal justice and equal rights.” On October 10th, Ethel […]
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The Howard G. Buffett Foundation Pledges Exclusive Support of the Fair Food Program’s USDA Pilot Project The grant will enable Fair Food Program to double in size and scope across the United States IMMOKALEE, FL— The Howard G. Buffett Foundation has pledged up to $3.2 million in grant funding over two years, to fund new expansion of the Fair Food Program (FFP), which is taking place through the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm Labor Stabilization and Protection Pilot Program. The funds will be dedicated specifically to supporting the FFP’s work necessary to bring 27 new […]