By Rosie Rangel, CAMP Staff
It’s common for most Americans to give little thought about where their food comes from. How does food reach our plate? Who picks our fruits and vegetables? How far does our food travel before it reaches us? These are all questions one can take for granted. At St. Edward’s, we have the unique position of not only having a food conscious dining service, Bon Appétit, but also of having the presence of migrant students in the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) who can give firsthand knowledge of what our food system is like in the United States. The event, “Stories from the Fields,” was a collaboration between Bon Appétit and CAMP that attempted to give students at St. Edward’s a better idea of how food gets from its original source and onto our plates.
The event took place on Wednesday, May 2nd and began with what it centered around: food. Bon Appétit provided local and sustainable snacks including “farm-to-fork” vegetables and appetizers. It was a great experience to see Chef Elvin Lubrin speak about and take pride in the food being served for the event. The second aim of the event was to educate students about what is currently taking place with food justice and Bon Appétit’s role in farm worker rights. S.K. Piper, a Bon Appétit Midwest Fellow, was able to introduce the audience to the current struggles of farmworkers, specifically those of tomato pickers in Immokalee, Florida.
As Piper spoke about farmworkers’ current struggles, it was hard to believe that in this day and age conditions of slavery and indentured servitude still exist in this country. Piper reported, that since 1997 there have been more than eight cases of slavery brought to court in Florida. Students were also surprised to hear that the Fair Labor Standards Act, the piece of legislation that provided a minimum wage and forbid child labor, expressly made an exception for farmworkers, allowing children as young as 12 to work in the fields. For those of us that grew up in the fields, this information was nothing new.
Piper was then able to explain the goals of Bon Appétit as a food provider. One of the main goals that stood out to me was the focus on having as much food as possible come from a direct connection between farmer and supplier. This initiative of “Farm to Fork” is a company-wide initiative to buy locally. Bon Appétit’s “first choice is to purchase seasonal and regional ingredients from a 150-mile radius of each restaurant.” Bon Appétit states: “as a result, we have healthier communities and customers.”
In addition to this commitment for a healthier community and customers, Bon Appétit also tackled the question of worker’s rights, something I had never witnessed from a food provider. It made me proud to know that workers were part of the equation when thinking about supporting a sustainable food system. Piper explained that as a company, Bon Appétit worked with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) to draft and implement a code of conduct for any tomato grower with whom they did business.
This code went beyond what CIW had requested; it included a minimum wage, worker empowerment and safety.
Part of this event also included a panel of current CAMP students: Sheyla Sanchez CAMP ’09; Erick Reyes CAMP ’10; Gerardo Vaca CAMP ’11; and Anabel Rodriguez CAMP ’10. This panel gave other students at St. Edward’s the opportunity to listen to first hand experiences from their peers about what it is like to work in the fields. The panel was also an opportunity for students to learn about CAMP and its goals as they related to the mission of St. Edward’s. As the longest running program in the nation, it was with great pride that I listened to CAMPers speak about how CAMP has assisted in breaking the cycle of migrant work in families and making it possible to achieve a higher education.
As a former CAMP student, and now the admission counselor for CAMP, I enjoyed this part of the event the most.
I was ecstatic to see how engaged the audience was to learn from current CAMPers about life as a migrant. CAMPers were able to put a face to the cause in students’ minds. The thing that united all of us was a vision for a better future. This event sparked an interest in the St. Edward’s community to join in the fight for a more sustainable food system and for the halt to worker abuses in the fields.
As the event closed, there was a call to action to become a part of this cause. Piper ended the event with a clip from the Bon Appétit sponsored TEDx Conference (Technology, Entertainment and Design) featuring Massie Greenwalt, Bon Appétit CFO, expressing her frustration of our food system and her hope of making it better.