Each Peach becomes Fair Food Sponsor

Each Peach Market will become D.C.’s first Fair Food Sponsor, first small independent grocery to commit to groundbreaking farmworker human rights program

This month, we are so excited to announce our partnership with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) by supporting their Fair Food Program (FFP), an amazing worker-driven human rights initiative that protects tens of thousands of farmworkers along the East Coast and Appalachia from abuses ranging from sexual harassment to forced labor. We are proud to be the first small independent grocer to join the program, following the Takoma Park Silver Spring Co-Op and the Park Slope Food Co-Op in New York City. The Fair Food Sponsor Program was created in order to allow co-ops, small independent grocers, and individual restaurants and chefs to support the Fair Food Program.

Our partnership involves a range of commitments. First off, we will be contributing to the Fair Food Program directly, which helps address economic insecurity of farmworkers by contributing to the Fair Food bonus paid to workers on participating farms. It also helps fund the comprehensive monitoring and oversight provided by the Fair Food Standards Council, which conducts comprehensive audits and manages a 24/7, trilingual hotline to ensure workers’ rights are being implemented on the ground. We will also provide education materials in store focused on farmworker rights, and the FFP.

Then, starting in the cooler months (after local tomato season is over), we will offer Fair Food certified tomatoes in store - along with potentially other types of produce as the program continues to expand and develop. So keep an eye out for the label!

A special thank you to our Produce Manager Ceriann, who introduced us to the FFP and helped us drive the partnership forward. This is a tangible way to put our values about food justice into practice, and to help build the kind of food system we want to see.

The Fair Food Program received a Presidential Medal from the Obama administration for its efforts combating forced labor and was called “the best workplace monitoring program in the U.S.” on the front page of the New York Times. The Program provides enforceable protections for tens of thousands of farmworkers ensuring the right to work free of violence, discrimination, and sexual assault, as well as implementing health and safety protections, which include comprehensive COVID-19 prevention protocols.

Find out more
www.fairfoodprogram.org