SFA Steering Committee Meets in Immokalee!

Plans made for powerful Trader Joe's and Publix mobilizations, student and youth organizing in the supermarket campaign, and strengthening SFA for the long haul!

• Meet your 2012 SFA Steering Committee and get in touch with the SC'er in your region to coordinate actions locally
• Major decisions and commitments from the 2012 face-to-face in Immokalee
  
  
• Trader Joe's Days of Action February 10-12, 2012
• New! SFA's first-annual "Year in Review" video!
• Major Publix mobilization, March 2012, Lakeland, Florida — stay tuned for details!

February 2, 2012 — Immokalee played host this past weekend to the annual face-to-face meeting of the Student/Farmworker Alliance Steering Committee (SC). The SC is SFA's main leadership and regional organizing body, comprised of some of the best and brightest young organizers from across the country fighting for farmworker justice and to transform the food system!

Over the course of 3 intense days in the birthplace of the Campaign for Fair Food, SC members built strategy and mobilization plans for the upcoming Trader Joes and Publix actions, built connections with CIW members and learned firsthand about the amazing transformation underway in Florida's fields, developed plans for continuing leadership development and organizational development within SFA, and recharged their batteries — and their spirits — for the work ahead.

Following the face-to-face, the Steering Committee emerged stronger and more committed than ever to carry the fight for fair food through to victory!

As we explored the crucial role of young people in the struggle for farmworker justice this past weekend, we reflected often on the memory and legacy of Nan Freeman, an 18-year old New College freshman who was fatally struck by a farm truck during a farmworker protest in Belle Glade forty years ago. In a moving tribute to Nan's memory, student activists at New College organized a candlelight vigil last week and circulated a letter to Publix CEO Ed Crenshaw, criticizing Florida's largest grocer for "[shrugging] off abuses." The letter read, in part:

This spring, SFA is poised to build upon this deep student organizing tradition set in motion by those who have gone before us. We'll start things off next week at the new Trader Joe's off Immokalee Road in Naples and in well over 30 cities across the country, and continue in Lakeland weeks later...

With all this momentum on our side, it's looking like Publix and Trader Joe's had better rethink their strategy...

2011 SFA "Year in Review"