Episode 123: FoodTank Presents Magaly Licolli & Gerardo Reyes
The Checkout presents an exclusive interview with Magaly Licolli of Venceremos Arkansas and Gerardo Reyes of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. Presented by FoodTank, Huston-Tillotson University and Oatly at the SXSW 2022 event: Just Food: Community, Culture, and Economy.
Magaly Licolli was born in Mexico and she has lived in Arkansas since 2004. In 2015, Licolli became the Executive Director of the Northwest Arkansas Workers' Justice Center. Magaly led the poultry campaign in Arkansas which gained notoriety around the nation. Throughout her work, Licolli has participated as Steering Council Member of HEAL Food Alliance and and co-chair at the National Steering Council of Interfaith Worker Justice. Licolli currently serves as a member of the Labor Research and Action Network (LRAN) advisory committee. Her vision to ensure the dignity of poultry workers led her to collaborate with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) to expand the Worker-driven Social Responsibility model to the poultry industry. In 2019, Licolli became the Executive Director and co-founder of Venceremos, a human rights worker-based organization that works to ensure the dignity of poultry workers.
Gerardo Reyes Chavez is a key leader of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). Gerardo is a farmworker and has worked in the fields since age 11, first as a peasant farmer in Zacatecas, Mexico and then in the fields of Florida picking oranges, tomatoes, blueberries, and watermelon. He has worked closely with consumer allies to organize national actions— renowned for their creativity and effectiveness — designed to bring pressure on the large retail purchasers of Florida produce to join the Fair Food Program. He speaks publicly about the Fair Food Program at events across the country, such as the Harvard Law School Labor and Worklife Program Convening on Farm Labor Challenges and the Interfaith Council on Corporate Responsibility’s Multi-Stakeholder Roundtable on Ethical Recruitment. As part of the implementation of the Fair Food Program, Gerardo and his colleagues conduct workers’ rights education in the fields on all farms participating in the program.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) is a worker-based human rights organization internationally recognized for its achievements in fighting human trafficking and gender-based violence at work. The CIW is also recognized for pioneering the design and development of the Worker-driven Social Responsibility paradigm, a worker-led, market-enforced approach to the protection of human rights in corporate supply chains. In 2011, CIW launched the Fair Food Program (FFP), a groundbreaking model for Worker-driven Social Responsibility (WSR) based on a unique partnership among farmworkers, Florida tomato growers, and participating retail buyers, including Subway, Whole Foods, and Walmart. In 2015, the Program expanded into tomatoes in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia and New Jersey, as well as Florida strawberries and peppers.
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