ideas for action

Be a part of the movement to bring fair food to our campuses! On this page you'll find some time-honored action ideas that you could apply to your local "Dine with Dignity" campaign! Also, check out this page for organizing resources/flyers and this page for tons of campus action "how-to's."

• creative protests/tactics
  Organize a creative, eye-catching action to raise your fellow students' consciousness about the role of Aramark, Chartwells and Sodexo in farmworker exploitation. to end human rights abuses in their tomato supply chains. Check out the archive to the left for action and visual ideas.
  • Hold a rally on campus
  • Organize a delegation of students and other supporters to go speak to your campus dining diector(s) and present them with a demand letter
  • Re-appropriate the comment cards in your dining hall! - get a hundred of your closest friends to fill-in dining services comment cards with demands and comments about the campaign, and then present them to campus dining
  • Set up a table on campus and think of other ways to collect student and student organization signatures on the letter to corporate
  • Get in touch with student government & get them to pass a resolution in support of the campaign & fair food on campus
  • Talk to campus workers and their unions - support their campaigns and ask them to support the campaign for fair food.
  • If you live in or near Philadelphia, PA (Aramark), Gaithersburg, MD (Sodexo), Charlotte, NC (Compass) or NYC's northern suburbs (Chartwells), contact us to talk about setting up a delegation to corporate headquarters!

• "consciousness + commitment = change"
  Underlying the CIW's organizing is the motto "consciousness + commitment = change." There are many great ways to create consciousness and awareness on your campus.
  • Host a film screening and/or campaign presentation. Contact us for a free DVD of CIW documentaries. You could also use more 'mainstream' films that are related to the topic. Use the films to bring people together and talk about the campaign before/afterwards!
  • Use these great resources (click here and here) to educate your peers about farmworker working conditions, modern-day slavery, and the campaign.
  • Ask professors if you could do quick classroom presentations/announcements ("class raps") about the campaign and how to get involved, for 5-10 minutes at the beginning or end of classes
  • Local, student, and independent media - consider writing an article or opinion piece about the campaign. Contact us for support for your press work.

• supermarket & chipotle campaigns
  Even as SFA goes full steam ahead with the "Dine with Dignity" campaign, the CIW and its allies are also ramping up for a major supermarket campaign, calling on leading national and regional supermarket chains like Kroger (most parts of the country under different brand names), Stop & Shop/Giant (northeast and mid-atlantic), and Publix (Florida and southeast) to work with the CIW to bring about human rights in their tomato supply chains. Contact us today for pre-addressed postcards to send to these corporations' headquarters. Also, check out this Chipotle campaign update, dowload a Chipotle manager letter here, and likewise drop us a line for some Chipotle postcards.
  

• fair food committees
  At both the local and national levels, student, youth, religious, labor, and grassroots organizations are coming together to build broad-based alliances in partnership with the CIW. Now is the time to develop and strengthen relationships that will prove invaluable as the Campaign for Fair Food continues. Click here for local contacts and check out the Alliance for Fair Food, Interfaith Action, and Just Harvest USA.