UNITE HERE and Food Workers Plan Food Day Celebrations

Food Workers Call for Real Food and Real Jobs Now

WASHINGTON, Oct. 20, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- UNITE HERE, the largest worker organization of food service workers in the country, is celebrating Food Day by hosting and participating in events on college campuses across the United States. The events – held at multiple locations in Baltimore, Boston, Connecticut, Chicago, and the Los Angeles area – will bring together food workers with students, faculty, and community food organizations, creating an opportunity for participants from diverse backgrounds to cook, eat, talk, listen and learn from each other about how to improve our food system.

As part of the Food Day celebrations, UNITE HERE is launching a new website – www.RealFoodRealJobs.org – to highlight the connection between healthy, sustainable food and working standards for food service workers.  Food Day seeks to bring together Americans from all walks of life to push for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way.

As the website showcases, there is resounding support for real food among food workers nationwide. "I am proud to cook real food for you that is not processed — real fresh food, locally grown food, vegetables and meats," said Rafael Marquez, a cook at Northwestern University. "It's good for you, it's good for us, it's good for everybody!"

Yet for food workers, the desire for real food goes beyond ingredients in the kitchen. "Food service workers are important allies in transforming our food system in part because they have so much at stake," said Chris Bohner, Director of UNITE HERE's Sustainable Food Project. "Not only are food service workers among the lowest paid workers in America, but they also suffer food insecurity and diet-related illnesses at alarmingly high rates."

Nearly one out of four food service workers live in food insecure households, and 31% are at risk for diet-related illnesses like diabetes, stroke, and heart disease — the highest rate of all occupations in the United States. "There is a real barrier to getting good, real food for folks in our communities. It takes a lot of time to shop and cook, and people often work two jobs," said Gladys Burrell, a food worker at Johns Hopkins University. "Sometimes the cost of unhealthy food is less than it is for healthy food. And bad food is everywhere, like drive-thru fast food places."

UNITE HERE's Food Day events will highlight the link between fair wages and benefits as an integral part of solving our nation's food and health crises.  For example, because of poverty wages paid by the food service industry, many food workers are unable to afford enough food to feed their families: 13% of food service workers lived in households that utilized food stamps at some point during the year, nearly double the national average.  

In contrast, food service workers represented by unions have a significantly higher earnings and benefits (18% higher wages than those without a union) providing workers with more resources to meet the food needs of their families. Sonja Edwards, a food worker at Loyola University that recently won their first union contract, noted that "the difference the union has made in my life is of course the pay increase. That's extra money I can put towards fresh groceries."

Food Day events sponsored by UNITE HERE will also celebrate the tremendous assets workers bring to the movement for real food, including untapped skills in the kitchen and a unique vantage point to monitor the safety and quality of food. "We're on the front line of campus food. If it were bad or unsafe, we would be the most likely ones to know it," said Raquel Baptiste, a cook at Wesleyan University.  "In our union contract, we've got protections so we don't have to be afraid to point out a problem," Baptiste added.

More information about UNITE HERE's Food Day events may be found at www.RealFoodRealJobs.org.  UNITE HERE represents over 90,000 food service workers employed in corporate cafeterias, airports, universities, school districts, sports stadiums and event centers, amusement parks, cultural institutions, and national parks. In addition, UNITE HERE represents tens of thousands of restaurant workers inside hotels and casinos.

SOURCE UNITE HERE