Fair Food Nation! Stand with farmworkers this Thanksgiving season for a week of action to demand Kroger join the Fair Food Program!
For many of us, Thanksgiving is a time of year when we pause to give thanks, spend time with friends and family, and enjoy the feast that marks the start of the holiday season. But in Immokalee and across the country, farmworkers and their allies in the Campaign for Fair Food also celebrate another tradition, as we remember and honor the hard work of the men and women whose undervalued labor has put food on Thanksgiving tables for generations.
And our tradition of taking action to support the women and men in the fields could not be more urgently needed this Thanksgiving season.
Earlier this year, the grocery giant Kroger – who has for over ten years resisted the call from farmworkers and consumers to join the award-winning Fair Food Program to prevent human rights abuses – was identified by the Department of Labor as a purchaser of watermelons harvested by modern-day slaves in the latest federal slavery prosecution to come out of Florida, US v. Moreno. While harvesting watermelons and other produce, these workers in Kroger’s own supply chain were trapped in dilapidated housing surrounded by barbed wire, forced into a deep pit of illegal debt, and threatened with physical harm to themselves or their families if they attempted to leave. Kroger was also connected through its purchases to forced labor in Mexico, and earlier this year was identified as a buyer from a farm that had been violating labor laws for nearly two decades.
Yet, Kroger has remained steadfast in its silence.
This Thanksgiving marks a critical moment for consumers to continue the Fair Food tradition through a Week of Action directed at Kroger. From November 18th to the 22nd, we are asking our allies to call, email, chat with, post about, and deliver letters to Kroger to let them know their customer base is deeply concerned about the human rights crisis in its supply chain.
Now, as we celebrate the harvest that farmworkers make possible, is the time to do what is right. Now is the time to champion the only proven solution to systemic forced labor in agriculture, the Fair Food Program.
Don’t think Kroger is in your area? Look closer. Your local grocery store may be owned by Kroger. In addition to Kroger grocery stores, the corporate behemoth owns and operates Baker’s, City Market, Copps, Dillons, Food 4 Less, Foods Co, Fred Meyer, Fry’s, Gerbes, Harris Teeter, Jay C Food Store, King Soopers, Mariano’s, Metro Market, Pay-Less Super Markets, Pick ’n Save, Owen’s, QFC, Ralphs, Roundy’s, Ruler, and Smith’s Food and Drug.
Stay tuned for more details, including sample posts for social media; a script you can use to call, email, and chat with Kroger; and a letter you can deliver to the manager of your local Kroger or its affiliate in your hometown.
