August 28th, 2013
Email: [email protected]
For Immediate Release
SEATTLE FOOD MOVEMENT FOCUSES ON FOOD SERVICE WORKERS
Saru Jayaraman, a national leader in organizing and advocacy for the rights of food service workers, will speak in Seattle on September 7th at Community Alliance for Global Justice’s annual Strengthening Local Economies Everywhere community dinner.
In the wake of the August 29th national food worker strike, Community Alliance for Global Justice (CAGJ), a Seattle non-profit that focuses on food justice and food sovereignty both locally and globally, is working with Jayaraman’s Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC-U) to build bonds between Seattle’s thriving “good food” movement and the accelerating food worker movement. The emphasis is on food that is “good” all the way through–to those who produce and prepare it as well as to those who eat it.
As strikes hit Seattle and more than eight other cities around the nation, Seattle’s food movement must recognize the importance of not only of the labor that goes into growing and harvesting food but also the labor that prepares it for our consumption. CAGJ’s annual “Strengthening Local Economies, Everywhere!” dinner, which draws hundreds of local food justice advocates and concerned eaters to share a meal of local, fair-trade food, is a prime opportunity to grow the food worker movement.
Past dinners have addressed everything from indigenous foods and the urban farming movement to farm worker struggles and solidarity with African small farmers. This year, keynote speaker Jayaraman will focus the conversation on why fair food must include fair conditions for the workers who make our meals possible, whether we eat at the fast food window or the upscale slow food restaurant.
Jayaraman is the cofounder of the Restaurant Opportunities Center – United, which organizes and advocates for thousands of restaurant workers around the nation. She is also the author of Behind the Kitchen Door, an expose on the exploitative conditions of the food service industry.
CAGJ’s “Strengthening Local Economies, Everywhere!” dinner will take place Saturday, September 7th, 5-9 p.m. at University Christian Church. The dinner will feature food from Madres’ Kitchen, Cafe Flora, and Community Kitchens Northwest, with music by the Seattle Fandango Project. Tickets are available at slee2013.brownpapertickets.com
For more information contact:
Jasmine, Dinner Coordinator 425-647-4136
Andrew, Publicity Coordinator 253-592-1596
