Food Workers and Food Justice Conference

Join with food workers, labor and food justice activists, funders, and media at this conference!

Close to 20 million people throughout the U.S. work in the food system – on farms and in food processing and meatpacking plants, warehouses, grocery stores, restaurants and food service establishments. The food system workforce is equal to one-sixth of the nation’s workforce, and the industries of food production, processing, distribution, retail and service collectively sell over $1.8 trillion dollars in goods and services annually, accounting for over 13 percent of United States Gross Domestic Product. What happens to food workers has an enormous impact on the economy and on consumers, food safety, and public health.

The conference will begin with the release of the FCWA report THE HANDS THAT FEED US: Challenges and Opportunities for Workers Along the Food Chain - the first-ever comprehensive report on the state of food workers in the U.S. – and workers will speak about how the report reflects their own experiences working in the food system. Also on the panel will be Kolu Zigbi of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation and Nicholas Freudenberg, Professor of Urban Public Health, Hunter College, City University of New York. We will then have breakout sessions to focus on the policy recommendations in the report.

Right after lunch, we will have a panel focused on the policy initiatives of three New York City-based FCWA member groups: the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York’s [1] proposed policy to tie liquor licenses to employment standards and the sale of healthy, nutritious food; UFCW Local 1500 and ALIGN’s efforts to require community involvement and good jobs to funding support for new grocery stores in underserved neighborhoods; and Brandworkers International’s [2] effort to include labor standards for any food manufacturing businesses that receive loans and other financial incentives in the City’s Economic Development Corporation. After this panel, we will end the day with a session of workshops to provide more hands-on tools and discussions for food workers and food justice activists.

Spanish translation and childcare will be provided! More details, including the conference agenda, are available on the Food Chain Workers Alliance's website [3]. Registration is only $20 and includes a light breakfast and lunch. Low-wage workers can attend for free! Register now at http://foodworkersandjustice.eventbrite.com/ [4]. 

The conference is co-hosted by the Food Chain Workers Alliance (FCWA), the UFCW Local 1500, and the Alliance for a Greater New York (ALIGN). ILRF is a member of the Food Chain Workers Alliance (FCWA).

ILRF is a founding member of the Food Chain Workers Alliance.