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The 4th day of the tour brought us to St. Augustine, coincidentally just a 45-minute drive from Palatka, an otherwise obscure northern Florida community that made headlines last year for the 6th case of modern-day slavery in agriculture that the CIW has helped to uncover in the past 10 years.
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There, the tour met with a enthusiastic group of allies, mostly new to the campaign, who were very eager to sign the petition and bring the campaign back to their communities...
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...while also taking part, during the presentation, in the now-ubiquitous 30-lb. bucket challenge.
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Our next (and final) day in Orlando got off to an early start with presentations at the University of Central Florida (UCF) followed by a discussion with parishioners and longtime CIW supporters at St. Margaret Mary in nearby Winter Park.
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Members of the St. Margaret Mary congregation presented the CIW with the fruits of their labor from the past 2 months: hundreds of signatures for the CIW Petition Campaign.
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Next, we visited the adjacent middle school and spoke to 4 separate rooms full of bright, attentive students about the conditions where their food comes from, Burger King, and the Petition, which many had already signed.
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And then it was back to UCF for another presentation which brought out dozens of students and allowed us to share some of the new CIW videos. At the end of the presentation, UCF students presented the CIW with a giant tomato full of petition signatures...
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...which made its way into this picture taken in front of the school's BK restaurant. UCF became the second school along the tour route at which students will be working to "Kick the King"...
And so the tour tour came to a close, with many along the way pledging to join us in Miami this Monday for the Petition delivery and to keep the campaign going over the summer and into the next semester...
See you in Miami! |
The Immokalee team arrives on the University of Florida campus after the long, arduous walk from Tampa. |
Well actually, we drove, and that was just a bad attempt at a joke -- and a little filler to make up for the fact that we, well, left the camera in the car for much of the day. Hey, at least we're honest.
But the tour stop at UF was successful with classroom presentations and plenty of petitioning and face-to-face dialogue, like that shown here.
A special shout-out to our friends from UF SDS, who made our visit possible and some of whom are on a hunger strike for socially responsible investing by their university - click here to find out how to support them. |
Over in Tallahassee, the day got off to a early start with yet another classroom presentation followed by some tabling...
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...flyering...
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...and, of course, petitioning.
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We also had the special opportunity to address the Florida State University Student Senate, alluding to a slightly more powerful Senate that had just heard testimony from the CIW, and to the Taco Bell boycott and similar efforts currently underway to block/kick off BK restaurants from campuses around the country.
Stay tuned as we bring the tour down the home stretch in the Jacksonville and Orlando areas! |
The 2008 Florida Petition Tour certainly got off to an interesting start with news breaking of the Campaign for Fair Food's very own spygate scandal. The picture above isn't of the reception we received in Tampa -- the tour's first stop -- but rather is taken from the website of Diplomatic Tactical Services, a private investigation/security firm whose president posed as a student and attempted to infiltrate SFA. You can read more about these attempts to spy on our movement -- and BK getting caught (again) spreading lies about the CIW -- at these links:
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In light of this latest attack, the CIW's National Petition Drive takes on a new sense of urgency in these last two weeks before the petition delivery action and procession on April 28 in Miami.
SFA and CIW members from Immokalee have hit the road for the 2008 Florida Petition Tour, traversing the Sunshine State and stopping at universities, schools, and churches along the way to share the petition and its message with Florida residents.
Pictured above are some of our friends from Students for Social Justice (SSJ) at the University of South Florida in Tampa who helped us get the tour off to a great start. |
While some in our delegation stayed behind at USF, others visited a local middle school to speak with 50+ enthusiastic students about the campaign, soliciting volunteers to take the challenge to lift a tomato bucket weighed down with 30 pounds of rice...
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...to simulate the back-breaking labor done every day by thousands of men and women to bring food to our tables. |
Back at USF, which hosts a Burger King restaurant on campus, Students for Social Justice have been behind a growing movement of conciousness and, of course, petitioning.
And when you just can't find a more sturdy surface to make your voice heard for fair food, sometimes a leg will do... |
...or a friend's notebook...
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...or even someone's back.
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In between petition-signing there was plenty of time for students and farmworkers to dialogue and explore the connections between their own exploitation and objectification on opposite ends of the corporate food system...
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...while a great nearby display exposed the dirty laundry of sweatshops and modern-day slavery in Florida's fields, captivating many an onlooker.
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The education and sharing continued throughout the day...
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...leading us into some action, as a delegation made its way to the on-campus BK to drop off a letter and speak with the manager.
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Oddly enough, the delegation found itself greeted by this well-dressed BK patron...
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...who actually turned out to be a representative from the campus' foodservice provider (and Burger King contract-holder) Aramark, who heard out the students' concerns and eagerly set up a meeting to find out more. SSJ has successfully led a campaign on campus to pressure Aramark to source fair-trade coffee and other products starting next semester, and are hoping to similarly replace Burger King with a more ethical establishment.
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The day ended with a combined campaign presentation, strategy session, and hang-out with new friendships forged and commitments deepened to see this campaign through to victory.
The tour left Tampa, sure that we would soon hear from USF again... |
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