Farmworkers, members of the clergy, students, consumers from Lakeland, across Florida and beyond will hold a 3-mile procession and ceremony on Saturday, March 10, to cap off a 6-day fast, insisting that Publix – Florida’s largest corporation – finally recognizes the humanity of the workers who pick its tomatoes and join the CIW’s Fair Food Program.
Kerry Kennedy, President, RFK Center for Justice & Human Rights, Reverend Michael Livingston, former president of the National Council of Churches and current director of the NCC’s Poverty Initiative, José José, widely regarded one of the most important Latin American singers of the late 20th century, will all join in the procession and ceremony.
Since Monday, March 5, over 60 farmworkers and allies have held vigil outside Publix headquarters and several Publix supermarkets around Lakeland, joined by dozens of supporters and additional fasters and by thousands of consumers around the country sending messages of support to the fasters and emails to Publix urging them to follow the lead of ten other multi-billion dollar retail food companies that have signed Fair Food agreements.
Despite this widespread support – including a poll by Tampa Bay’s Channel 10 News, WTSP, showing 62% of the respondents in favor of paying a penny more per pound to improve farmworker wages and working conditions and only 19% opposed — Publix continues to rebuff the call to participate in the Fair Food Program.
Saturday, March 10 – Details for the Procession to Publix Headquarters & Culmination of Fast:
Procession begins: At 12 noon on Saturday, March 10, farmworkers – including fasters and children of fasting workers who will make the journey to Lakeland that day to reunite with their parents – and their allies will gather at the Publix supermarket located at 3636 Harden Blvd, Lakeland.
The procession continues: Farmworkers will lead a solemn, three-mile procession from the Harden Blvd location to the fast site, evoking traditions of peaceful nonviolent action in the United States and recounting the unique, nearly two-decade history of the CIW and the Campaign for Fair Food through large displays as part of a vivid, living timeline.
Ceremony ends the fast: At 2:00pm in front of Publix Headquarters, as her father did with Cesar Chavez when he ended his lengthy fast in 1968, Kerry Kennedy, together with Lakeland, Florida and national clergy, will break bread with farmworkers in front of Publix headquarters to end the fast.
Supporters and participants in the fast thus far include:
· Kerry Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Huma Rights
· Reverend Michael Livingston of the National Council of Churches
· Congressman Luis Gutierrez
· Martin Sheen, actor
· Mark Bittman, food writer
· Eric Schlosser, author, Fast Food Nation
· Frances Moore Lappé, author, Diet for a Small Planet
· The Reverend Dr. Bernice Powell Jackson, First United Church of Tampa; President, North America Conference of the World Council of Churches
· The Reverend Larry Rankin, retired United Methodist pastor, Lakeland, FL
· Barry Estabrook, author, Tomatoland
· Raj Patel, author, Stuffed and Starved
· Reverend Robert Moses, St. David’s Episcopal Church of Lakeland
· Families and students from Lakeland, Tampa, Orlando, Gainesville, Miami, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Atlanta and beyond
