George Washington University Athletics
Colonials in the Community: Faith Weber
1/21/2020 4:28:00 PM | Softball, My GW: Celebrating our Stories
GW softball senior completed third service learning trip through GW Alternative Breaks
An adventure with GW Alternative Breaks has become a staple of Faith Weber's preparation for the GW softball season. The senior from New Jersey recently returned from her third service-learning trip through the organization, this one an exploration of Immokalee, Fla., to learn more about food justice and migrant worker rights over the final week of winter break.
Before this trip, I knew very little about these topics, but now after visiting several farms and hearing from all the different organizations, I have a lot more perspective.
On the trip, we visited the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) where we did service and had a great discussion about the work they do to support the farmworker community and the Fair Food Agreement they have negotiated with large buyers of tomatoes such as Walmart, Taco Bell and McDonalds, to ensure worker rights.
The unique thing about the CIW is that it is all farmworker-run, and it is in a very central spot in the Immokalee community to support those whom it serves. They even have a general store, run their own local radio station and host community movie nights. Their model is worker-driven social responsibility as a transformative human rights model. A lot of their efforts at the moment are aimed towards getting Wendy's to sign on to the Fair Food Agreement.
While on this trip we also spent time at two farms that have implemented the Fair Food Program to get the farmers' perspective. We visited Lipman Family Farms at their tomato packing plant in Immokalee, as well as Gargiulo Farms. It was very interesting to see how each farm navigated employing workers and how they implemented the Fair Food Program.
While we visited Gargiulo Farms, we were accompanied by a member of the University of Florida's Agriculture Extension Program who was able to assist in answering a lot of questions. She brought a lot of perspective from the agriculture industry to the day.
We also did service with the Redlands Christian Migrant Association (RCMA) and worked with kids with ages ranging from infant to 5th grade whose caregivers are often farmworkers.They are a childcare and education association that focuses on cost manageable childcare where many of the teachers and staff are farm workers themselves that have worked in the fields. We all worked with different classes, but I worked with the fourth and first graders in gym class, and we had a blast! (I even got to showcase my skills in some intense Bounce Wiffle Ball!!)
Some other places we visited included the Culinary Accelerator in Immokalee, which is a membership-based shared kitchen facility where individuals trying to start a culinary business or catering company can go and rent out space to use a state-of-the-art culinary facility in order to make the jumpstart in beginning a business. We got to meet one of the members at the end as she was getting ready to make A LOT of homemade guacamole. This particular member started a hot sauce business with $400 that is now worth about $1.4 million!! (We had some samples, and it was delicious.)
Lastly, we visited a pediatric rehabilitation center in Naples where they support a large population from Immokalee. I helped facilitate the visit through Amy Parker, a physical therapist who actually just moved to the area from my hometown of little ol' New Egypt, N.J. (Small world!)
All in all, we had a lot of fun learning about this topic, and now we are able to bring back what we learned to advocate at GW for the Fair Food Program! From kayaking, hiking, going to the beach and visiting farmers markets, in addition to lots of service learning and group reflection, I am very thankful to the GW Alt Breaks program, the trip leaders and the students on the trip for making this great learning experience possible.
I'd encourage anyone with more questions about the Fair Food Program to check out the CIW or DC fair food websites to learn more.Gallery: (1/15/2020) Faith Weber Alternative Breaks
Before this trip, I knew very little about these topics, but now after visiting several farms and hearing from all the different organizations, I have a lot more perspective.
On the trip, we visited the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) where we did service and had a great discussion about the work they do to support the farmworker community and the Fair Food Agreement they have negotiated with large buyers of tomatoes such as Walmart, Taco Bell and McDonalds, to ensure worker rights.
The unique thing about the CIW is that it is all farmworker-run, and it is in a very central spot in the Immokalee community to support those whom it serves. They even have a general store, run their own local radio station and host community movie nights. Their model is worker-driven social responsibility as a transformative human rights model. A lot of their efforts at the moment are aimed towards getting Wendy's to sign on to the Fair Food Agreement.
While on this trip we also spent time at two farms that have implemented the Fair Food Program to get the farmers' perspective. We visited Lipman Family Farms at their tomato packing plant in Immokalee, as well as Gargiulo Farms. It was very interesting to see how each farm navigated employing workers and how they implemented the Fair Food Program.
While we visited Gargiulo Farms, we were accompanied by a member of the University of Florida's Agriculture Extension Program who was able to assist in answering a lot of questions. She brought a lot of perspective from the agriculture industry to the day.
We also did service with the Redlands Christian Migrant Association (RCMA) and worked with kids with ages ranging from infant to 5th grade whose caregivers are often farmworkers.They are a childcare and education association that focuses on cost manageable childcare where many of the teachers and staff are farm workers themselves that have worked in the fields. We all worked with different classes, but I worked with the fourth and first graders in gym class, and we had a blast! (I even got to showcase my skills in some intense Bounce Wiffle Ball!!)
Some other places we visited included the Culinary Accelerator in Immokalee, which is a membership-based shared kitchen facility where individuals trying to start a culinary business or catering company can go and rent out space to use a state-of-the-art culinary facility in order to make the jumpstart in beginning a business. We got to meet one of the members at the end as she was getting ready to make A LOT of homemade guacamole. This particular member started a hot sauce business with $400 that is now worth about $1.4 million!! (We had some samples, and it was delicious.)
Lastly, we visited a pediatric rehabilitation center in Naples where they support a large population from Immokalee. I helped facilitate the visit through Amy Parker, a physical therapist who actually just moved to the area from my hometown of little ol' New Egypt, N.J. (Small world!)
All in all, we had a lot of fun learning about this topic, and now we are able to bring back what we learned to advocate at GW for the Fair Food Program! From kayaking, hiking, going to the beach and visiting farmers markets, in addition to lots of service learning and group reflection, I am very thankful to the GW Alt Breaks program, the trip leaders and the students on the trip for making this great learning experience possible.
I'd encourage anyone with more questions about the Fair Food Program to check out the CIW or DC fair food websites to learn more.
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