Imagine eating a juicy hamburger or a taco stuffed with lettuce, tomatoes, cheese and meat. Whatever you like the best, most of us enjoy a meal from a fast food restaurant once in a while. But have you stopped to think how the food is prepared or where the ingredients come from? What if you knew that the worker who picked the tomatoes on your burger had to pick two tons of tomatoes to earn $50?
At Baldwin Presbyterian Church in Baldwin, N.Y., it was the fifth and sixth graders who led the way in helping people to learn about farmworkers and what they are paid for their hard work. In 2003, Sunday school teacher Liz Letzler encouraged her fifth and sixth grade class to study the Taco Bell boycott and the reasons behind it. The children learned that farmworkers earned only 40-45 cents for each 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they picked.
The kids asked some hard questions: What is a boycott? Was a boycott the best way to change what was happening to the workers? What else had the farmworkers tried before calling a boycott? If the farmworkers' pay went up, would that mean that the price of tacos would go up? If that happened, would most people be willing to pay more?
Now the kids were ready to hear from the farmworkers themselves. So some of them took a trip to nearby Adelphi University. There they heard the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) make a speech to college students and got to meet some of the farmworkers.
The next day they took the train into New York City to join the farmworkers and other people who supported them. The group was putting on a street protest in front of a Taco Bell in downtown Manhattan. It was the first protest the kids had ever attended. The colors, the chanting, the excitement, the noisemakers and signs — it was electrifying. As the girls marched with their teacher, they knew that they were informing people on the street who might otherwise not know about how the farmworkers were not being treated fairly. Together the farmworkers and the children from Baldwin Sunday School were saying that the problem was real and that together they could end it.
A few weeks later, the fifth and sixth grade Sunday school class invited the Reverend Noelle Damico, the national coordinator of the boycott, to come to their congregation. The Rev. Damico preached, but the children preached, too. During the time for the children's message, the children helped her to give the message to the congregation. It was simple: The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) could help the farmworkers to get better pay and better working conditions in the fields. Christians could pray for the workers and the company, send postcards to the company and join in public protests. And people could agree not to buy food at Taco Bell until changes were made. The children passed out postcards during the worship service and invited everyone to sign them and drop them at the door following worship.
And things have changed. In March 2005, Yum! Brands (Taco Bell’s parent company) and the CIW did reach an agreement. It ended the boycott and brought about better conditions for the farmworkers. The farmworkers won, but the children won, too. They put their faith into action and helped their congregations to do the same.
And other fast-food companies are beginning to change — slowly. In April 2007, just before another boycott was about to start, McDonald’s also made an agreement with the CIW. Then in May 2007, Yum! Brands expanded the Taco Bell agreement to all of its companies (Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, Long John Silvers’ and A&W Restaurants).
The farmworkers and the people who support them are now trying to work with Burger King and other fast-food restaurants to make things fairer for the workers. But Burger King has been working with some growers to stop the workers from getting the penny per pound raise. It's not fair, and it's certainly not right! More work will need to be done to be sure that farmworkers, some of them kids not much older than you, get fair pay for the work they do.
— The Rev. Noelle Damico
Pray for the farmworkers and their families. Pray for the people who own the big farms and the fast food restaurants that buy the tommatoes.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has been a partner with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers for many years. Our church has joined the farmworkers in letter writing, public protest and prayer. We have also given money to the farm workers so that they can continue to train new leaders from among their community. Churches near Immokalee as well as the national church have given money to help the farm workers to build a new community center.
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