Bake Sales

My club had a bake sale recently, where we raised 94 dollars to buy a goat, miracle tree, and honey bees from Oxfam America. This was a really good amount for four hours of work. But this accomplishment was somewhat dampered by the fact that clubs are no longer allowed to have bake sales. The schools main provider of food (Aramark) is saying that students are not allowed to sell any sort of food item. This sucks! Clubs depend upon selling food, because what else are students going to buy?

Aramark is making the campus very unhappy, and not just because they are banning bake sales, but also because they fail to pay fair wages to the tomato pickers of Immokalee. The workers in Immokalee get paid a very small amount, far far below minimum wage. This is happening right by our school, in a little town that everyone overlooks because it is mainly a farmworkers town. A club at our school is trying to get Aramark to work with the CIW (Coalition of Immokalee Workers) to ensure basic human rights and dignity for the farmworkers in its supply chain, and to pay a penny more per pound for its tomatoes directly to the workers that picked them.

It is a big task to accomplish, but we must try for the sake of the livelihood of others, and I wish Angela and the other members of the Progressive Student Alliance luck!

Club Meetings

I just had the first meeting for my club yesterday, and we ad nineteen people show, which is a lot for the club. I know many of them will discontinue, but maybe there will be some who are interested enough to stay, go to the events, and maybe even take a leadership position. It is my fear that there will not be anyone interested enough to want to take a leadership position, and the club will die. Who will take on the clubs mission?

There are over 10,000 students at my school, and there are only about 10-20 individuals who dedicate a lot of their time for social justice. There are probably about 100 (or less) that will go to an event or two. The 10-20 people who actually care work long hours to provide opportunities to other students to get involved in the community and world, but we never get the huge crowds that you see at basketball games or dances. I don't understand, because many of our events are very fun!