Immokalee is home to a majority immigrant farmworker population in the Southwest Florida community. Many of whom are often mistreated.
“Many people are disconnected from the food that they eat, they don’t realize all the work that goes into having that food in front of you at dinner time or lunch or breakfast,” Giselle Ramirez, the campaign and community coordinator for the Coalition of Immokalee Workers said.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, or CIW, works to protect farmworkers and make sure they’re recognized for the work they do by advocating for fair wages and fair treatment.
“For the first time, farm workers have a way to have their basic human rights and freedoms protected. They finally have a voice in the fields to be able to report any type of exploitation, abuses, violations of their rights,” Ramirez said.
In the early 2000s, the Student/Farmworker Alliance was created as a way to generate involvement in the coalition from local schools and universities like FGCU. It works to inform students about the struggles the CIW faces and get them engaged in the movement happening so close to our area.
“It was really eye opening when I heard about what they do and how all these injustices are happening, literally, like, 40 minutes away from campus,” Atzimba Torres-Padilla, president of the FGCU SFA chapter said.
Torres-Padilla lives locally in Lehigh Acres but wasn’t familiar with the history of Immokalee until coming to FGCU.
“I really wanted to be involved and be part of that movement and help farm workers achieve justice,” she said.
Similarly, two current CIW advocates, Ramirez and Annabelle Chapman, are FGCU alumni who were previously involved with SFA because of connections they had when they were younger.
“We have students whose families, and they’ve grown up with CIW. And you know, their parents do this work, their grandparents, in some instances, have done this work,” SFA’s advisor Aaron Nunes-Zaller said. “Our community, FGCU, has been involved with CIW for decades.”
Ramirez grew up in Immokalee and got more involved when she became president of SFA. Chapman got involved in middle school when a pastor at a church encouraged them to go to a protest.
The CIW’s main initiative is called the Fair Food Program which is internationally recognized. Naturally, SFA participates in this as well. The Fair Food Fest is its biggest event. This year’s event happened last Thursday where RSOs and vendors promoted advocacy to shed light on farmworker justice.
The Fair Food Program is a partnership between corporations and farmworkers that allow grocery stores and fast-food chains to only purchase certain produce from farms with a strict code of conduct under the program in compliance with the Fair Food Standards Council.
“Fair Food Standards Council is amazing, and that’s why the Fair Food Program is so important because it’s like the only program for agricultural workers that actually has all of these enforcement mechanisms that are actually effective, instead of just like a code of conduct that some corporations like Wendy’s will brag about having,” Chapman said.
The council protects the workers by making sure they are being paid fairly and are not abused.
“It’s really important to me that students, staff, anyone like the general public, is aware, and just don’t go blindly into these stores knowing the harsh reality that people go through to provide us with this produce,” Torres-Padilla said.
The main initiative of the Fair Food Program is boycotting Wendy’s. Wendy’s is the last major fast-food restaurant not to join the Fair Food Program. When farms in Florida were consolidated to the program, Wendy’s decided to move tomato purchases to Mexico where farmworker conditions were worse.
The CIW is in constant communication with SFA to let the group know of any major movements happening or calls to action they can take. SFA promotes Boycott Wendy’s through stickers and buttons they hand out while tabling to create more awareness around campus.
“It also really helps that Giselle is involved within CIW, because she knows how SFA runs, so that helps build a closer connection to us,” Torres-Padilla said. “I like to kind of follow her lead and also participate further.”
Because the CIW is heavily involved with SFA, Ramirez frequently collaborates and looks back on the work and effort her alma mater is doing.
“I’m really proud of the work that FGCU SFA is doing and that they’re continuing on to spread awareness on campus about the campaign for fair food and how students can get involved and the mission of the coalition of Immokalee workers,” Ramirez said.
The collaboration between the CIW and SFA creates greater impact and outreach for farmworkers who face harsh conditions and modern slavery every day.
Torres-Padilla encourages those that are interested to get involved by following SFA on Instagram, sharing flyers, tabling, joining on campus movements and spreading awareness in any way possible.
“[There’s] more power in our voice by getting both students to come together and farm workers to come together, just to create that alliance so we can help promote and speak up for farmworker justice,” she said.
Students are the future. By teaching and empowering young people about these issues, more groups can be reached.
“SFA has been very hopeful in a world that at some point it’s hard to find hope,” Nunes-Zaller said.
