The Fresh Market Joins CIW Fair Food Program

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and Greensboro, N.C.-based The Fresh Market have announced a new national partnership to support fair farm labor conditions and verifiable, worker-driven social responsibility in US agriculture.

The collaboration breaks new ground in the CIW’s award-winning Fair Food Program in two significant ways.  First, starting with the 2015-2016 season, The Fresh Market will increase its purchases by 15% year-over-year from Florida tomato growers participating in the Fair Food Program.  This is an important new precedent that recognizes and supports growers who are making significant investments to improve labor conditions on their farms with increased market share.

Second, The Fresh Market will make an annual contribution to support the Fair Food Standards Council (FFSC), the third-party monitoring organization that oversees compliance with the Fair Food Program’s unique human rights standards.  The essential work of the FFSC includes investigating and resolving workers’ complaints, auditing farms for compliance with the Fair Food Code of Conduct, and enforcing the FFP’s standards.

“This agreement truly takes the Fair Food Program to a new level,” said the CIW’s Guadalupe Gonzalo, reacting to the new partnership.  “The FFP is pioneering a new form of social responsibility, one in which we as workers ourselves take a leading role in protecting our own rights in the fields.”

“But we can’t do this alone,” continued Gonzalo.  “The FFP is a day-to-day, careful partnership with growers and buyers alike aimed at ensuring that the workplace environment in Florida’s fields is second to none.”

To learn more about the Fair Food Program, please visit www.fairfoodprogram.org