Food Chain Workers Alliance
The Food Chain Workers Alliance (FCWA) is a national coalition of 31 worker-based organizations of workers in many sectors of the food chain, including agriculture, processing, selling, and serving. Its program areas include strategic campaigns, leadership development, policy and standards, and education and communications. FCWA members represent over 300,000 workers. The Alliance is based in Los Angeles, California, and was founded in 2009. History Prior to 2008, a number of organizations of workers along the food chain had been struggling with ways to integrate their work with the new national interest in food systems, and some had begun talking with each other about possible ways to collaborate with each other. In January 2008 the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United), thanks to a suggestion from a Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation program officer, organized an initial meeting of several organizations and in May 2008 convened eight organizations at the Labor Notes Conference in Detroit. At this meeting, the groups came together to get to know each other better, to share information on their work, and to talk about the idea of collaborating with each other. These groups included ROC United, the Center for New Community, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, el