A powerful training opportunity is coming to the Midwest: Justice in the Food Chain: Training for Organizers and Activists, September 25-27, Chicago, IL

More than 20 million people are employed in the American food system, and 86% of them earn low to poverty wages; most of these workers are people of color, and many are immigrants. Human rights questions within the food chain are connected to “earth rights” questions: heavy reliance by corporate farms on chemical fertilizers, pesticides and intensive water use are poisoning our environment.

The Unitarian Universalist College of Social Justice and the Food Chain Workers’ Alliance have teamed up to develop a training program that unites our concern for the environment with our concern for worker justice. Justice in the Food Chain will bring together equal numbers of food chain workers with activist allies who care about sourcing our food in a way that is both environmentally conscious and fair to workers. 

A limited number of training slots are available. Because the Food Chain Workers’ Alliance will be organizing fair food campaigns in Chicago and Cincinnati in 2015-2016, participants from these metropolitan areas are the priority for this training. The Food Chain Workers Alliance, comprised of 23 worker justice centers around the country, is leading this campaign; the UU College of Social Justice has joined them to spread the word and mobilize people of faith and conscience to put our values into action.

Find out more and register!

Hope to see you in Chicago,
Hannah Hafter

Hannah Hafter is the Senior Associate for Service Learning at the Unitarian Universalist College of Social Justice.

p.s. Check out these opportunities in Chicago and at the UUA General Assembly in Portland, OR, to learn more about the partnership and the campaign:

• Info session in Chicago this Thursday, June 11, 6–8pm at Meadville Lombard Theological School, 610 S. Michigan Avenue (in the same building as the Spertus Institute)
• Workshop at General Assembly in Portland: “Solidarity Across the Food Chain,” Friday, June 26th, 4:45–6pm, Oregon Convention Center, Rooms F151-152. 
• Reception in Portland with Jose Oliva, Director of Food Chain Worker’s Alliance, Friday, June 26, 6:30–8pm, Doubletree Hotel, Suite suite 1569 (please RSVP to me, Hannah Hafter, at ).