Farmworkers’ annual march through Palm Beach expands to 3-day festival
Music and arts event set for today at Bradley Park
An annual march through Palm Beach to draw attention to the plight of farmworkers has expanded to a threeday festival that began Friday and runs through Sunday on the island.
The Farmworker Freedom Festival presented by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to highlight the Fair Food Program will take place at points throughout Palm Beach, including a daylong music and arts event on Saturday at Bradley Park, organizers said in a news release.
The Fair Food Program, founded in 2011, includes restaurants and retailers — like McDonald’s and Whole Foods — that pledge to buy only from suppliers who follow a code of conduct designed to protect workers’ rights. The program also includes economic premiums paid by the program’s participants, with that money making its way down the supply chain to the workers.
Calling the festival a three-day “celebration of farmworker culture and fundamental human rights,” the fete was born as group leaders planned and realized there was more interest and there were more events than could fit in one day, the group said.
“As farmworkers, it is important to celebrate how far we have come thanks to the Fair Food Program, with its unique protections against wage theft, sexual harassment and even climate change, including mandatory rest, shade and water,” Lupe Gonzalo, farmworker and senior coalition staff member, said in a news release. “But we know that for every farmworker empowered by the FFP, there are many more still toiling in extreme exploitation outside the program’s bounds.”
That is why, Gonzalo said, the festival is held in Palm Beach — home to Nelson Peltz, the billionaire chair of the board of directors of fast-food giant Wendy’s. Peltz has the power to expand the Fair Food Program to include farmworkers in Wendy’s supply chain, Gonzalo said.
Wendy’s and Florida-based grocery chain Publix have historically been called out by the annual farmworkers march through Palm Beach, though this year’s event is particularly focused on Peltz, as seen in news releases ahead of the festival.
A Wendy’s spokesperson said the company does not participate in the Fair Food Program “because we do not purchase field-grown tomatoes and there is no nexus between the program and our supply chain. Since 2019, we have sourced our North American tomato supply exclusively from indoor, hydroponic greenhouse farms, while the Fair Food Program predominantly operates in outdoor, conventional tomato growing environments.
“Wendy’s has an established Supplier Code of Conduct that applies to significant suppliers of The Wendy’s Company and our North America restaurant system, and we also require third-party reviews related to the human rights and labor practices for suppliers of certain hand-harvested, whole, fresh produce.”
Publix Media Relations Manager Lindsey Willis said, “We value the relationships along the path from ‘farm to fork’ and realize it takes a lot of people, each providing a great service. Publix remains the focus of a campaign by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) who seek to pressure us to become involved in the employment relationship between Florida farmers who grow tomatoes and the farmworkers they employ to harvest their product. Since first approached by the CIW in 2009, we have consistently viewed this issue as a labor dispute, and our position remains the same today.”
Kristina Webb is a reporter for Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Network. You can reach her at kwebb@pbdailynews.com. Subscribe today to support local journalism.