The Path Forward...

Our last action was a great success! Thank you so much to everyone who came out to support the farmworkers and to those you missed it, don't worry there will be plenty more actions to come, because we still have a long way to go. Check out the photos and the awesome video of our fair food ally Rob making up some fair food songs at the action (thanks Rob!). We were able to rally the troops and bring our message to Publix's front door step. We spoke to a number of people, who were completely unaware of the unjust working conditions that Publix knowingly continues to support. And unsurprisingly, Publix didn't have anything new to say, in-fact, they had nothing at all to say. I don't know how much longer Publix can ignore the injustices they support everyday, but I know we can keep going until they finally choose to do the right thing!!!

Fair Food Jacksonville will continue to move forward in supporting fair and sustainable food. We will gear up for another action in early 2012 and I am thinking we should bring our message to Publix in Jacksonville Beach. We will also be working on a new campaign in Northeast Florida, which will allow nonprofits (i.e. Food Not Bombs) the ability to distribute food in public. As it stands now, it is illegal to distribute food in Jacksonville without proper permitting, which is very unattainable for many nonprofits. Currently the city extends an exemption to churches and so there no reason they can extend the same rights to secular nonprofits. More on this coming soon, but if you want to be in the planning process for this campaign, be sure to contact James Taylor at tayj0016@gmail.com.

Lastly, to better organize ourselves we will be having monthly meetings every first Saturday of the month staring in December 2011. We will set a meeting time soon and the first meeting will take place in Riverside, but may change month to month so we can reach different areas of Jacksonville.

Thanks so much everyone,

In solidarity,
james