At the first White House Forum to Combat Human Trafficking, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) was honored, along with other nonprofit organizations, for their work in fighting human trafficking. The April 15 event featured a number of White House representatives, including Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Attorney General Eric Holder. 
In a report released in conjunction with the event, the Fair Food Program was praised as “one of the most successful and innovative programs” in the world in the fight to uncover and prevent modern-day slavery. The CIW developed the program.
More than 1,000 people have been freed from slavery in U.S. tomato fields because of the work of the Fair Food Campaign, and seven cases of forced labor slavery have been successfully prosecuted, according to the White House report. The report was released by the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
During the event, Ambassador at Large Luis deBaca, director of the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, told a personal story about the CIW’s first slavery investigation. He said that CIW had been complaining about one grower. “We went out and we were able to investigate that case. … So where there was smoke, there was fire, and that little spark has ignited a movement,” he said.
The Fair Food Program is a partnership involving farmworkers, growers and consumers. Nearly 90 percent of Florida growers participate in the Fair Food Program, employing approximately 30,000 workers during the season and between 80,000 and 100,000 workers during a season.
In a statement, the Coalition said, “We here at the CIW are sincerely honored by the President’s Council’s consideration of our work. We look forward to working more closely with the the Obama Administration in the months and years ahead toward both the incorporation of the Fair Food Program itself within the federal government’s produce supply chain, and the inclusion of the Fair Food Program’s lessons and principles of corporate accountability into future guidelines for broader private sector engagement in the fight to eradicate modern-day slavery.”
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) is a membership-led organization of mainly Latino, Mayan Indian and Haitian immigrants working in low-wage jobs throughout the state of Florida. CIW strives to build its strength as a community on a basis of reflection and analysis, attention to coalition-building and an investment in leadership development.