FSU Resolution: “Be it further resolved that: The 74th Student Senate encourages Florida State University students to support farmworker rights by boycotting Wendy’s until they join the Fair Food Program”…
Today, we are thrilled to share some exciting news from the Student/Farmworker Alliance! This impressive network of students and young people, who have persisted with powerful on-campus and online organizing through two long years of COVID-19, has notched yet another victory in their nationwide “Boot the Braids” Campaign – right in the capital of the CIW’s home state.
Without further ado, here is the first-hand report from Florida State University:
Just months after Florida Atlantic University “booted the braids“, confirming that their university would not be renewing its contract with Wendy’s after years of student organizing, the Florida State University Student Senate passed a resolution recognizing the achievements of the Fair Food Program and endorsing the national boycott of Wendy’s. With this historic resolution in the state’s capitol, FSU joins other universities like the Methodist Theological School in Ohio and Florida Gulf Coast University that have added their voices to the nationwide movement of student and city governments calling for universities and communities alike to refuse to give so much as a dollar of business to the hamburger giant until it joins the award-winning Fair Food Program.
Students at FSU started a Student/Farmworker Alliance chapter back in 2019 and, since then, have been working tirelessly to educate their fellow students, professors, and university administration about farmworker justice. In the past year, they launched a digital and in-person campaign called “Ask me why I boycott Wendy’s”, blanketing the campus with stickers and flyers linking to their website, reaching thousands of FSU students on their way to class or to grab a bite to eat.
FSU’s growing campaign took off in earnest this past spring, when FSU SFA joined other students, farmworkers, faith allies, and consumers in Palm Beach, the home of top Wendy’s investor Nelson Peltz, for the March to End Modern Slavery in the Fields. There, they connected with other Sunshine State students from UF, FGCU, and FAU and hear the call for justice from farmworkers first-hand. Energized and inspired, FSU students headed back to Tallahassee, more determined than ever to make their voices heard in the Wendy’s Boycott.
And now, that determination has paid off! In the months since the massive march in Palm Beach, students at FSU worked together with Student Government – representing all 33,000+ students – to author a resolution urging Florida State and other campuses in Tallahassee to refuse business with Wendy’s and encourage their student body to boycott the corporation until it joins the Fair Food Program.
Positioned in the capital of Florida, FSU’s support of the Wendy’s Boycott is HUGE news in the Campaign for Fair Food! FSU has joined six other universities – visualized over on our site today in the Boot the Braids map – to endorse the Wendy’s Boycott and/or kick Wendy’s off campus. You can read FSU’s resolution in its entirety here, or scroll through the map to view other resolutions across the country!
