Food Collection For Immigrant Families -- This Sunday

Please bring non-perishable food this Sunday, September 5. Our youngest members will collect it as part of the Offering. These families really need the extra support. Thanks in advance for your help.

Helped Needed After Service This Sunday, September 5

Some surplus clothing and the bins we take to the migrant camps have been in storage over the summer. We need help setting up this project. It should only take about 45 minutes of your time, and your help will be most appreciated. After service and coffee, meet by the Social Justice bulletin board at 12:30pm.

Need Donations -- From Infants To Middle School Age

Migrant families will soon be returning to our area. For the past several years this congregation has supported the children of these families by donating gently used and new clothing which we take each month to migrant worker camps in the Plant City area.

As your kids, grandkids or neighbor’s children return to school and have no need for the clothes they have outgrown, please bring them to UU St. Pete as they will be very appreciated by the children who live in these camps. They arrive here with only what they can wear or store in a very small bag.

Please place your donated clothing in the bin by the Social Justice bulletin board in Gilmour Hall. Thank YOU!

Please only children’s clothing – as our partner organization, the National Farm Worker Ministry has ample donations for the adults.

Handcuffs, Hangman And Jesus: Reflections On My Arrest At The SB1070 Protests In Phoenix

“This is how ethnic cleansing gets started. It comes disguised as law enforcement, as a firm hand protecting social order during chaotic times. Ethnic cleansing is founded upon fear. It requires turning an ethnic or racial group into "the other." "They" are taking over. "They" are different and will destroy our way of life. The process ends, always, in violence. Below is a brief portrait of the early stages of ethnic cleansing in Arizona. And, make no mistake, we are all Arizona.”

For the complete article by Unitarian Universalist President, Reverend Peter Morales, click on this link to The Huffington Post.

Immigration Is Very Complex

To help understand the many issues associated with the current state of immigration in this country, the UUA Advocacy and Witness Programs’ Office has prepared a number of tools to help us. One is the Welcoming Our Neighbors: A Unitarian Universalist Guide to Immigrant Justice, which you can access by simply clicking on its title.

Your Migrant/Immigrant Ministry will also provide bite-sized articles about the major issues associated with immigration in Scope and InfoNet as well as provide educational films and a service this fall – but we want to incorporate your interests and concerns. Here are some questions for you to think about:

• I suspect that we agree that the current immigration laws and many of the supporting policies are not working. Would you like to know why?
• What is the current picture regarding due process when immigrants are deported and the impact on families? Nationwide? Here in Florida?
• What would Comprehensive Immigration Reform look like? Current legislative recommendations in US Congress?
• What about a look-a-like Arizona bill here in Florida? What should we do?
• Other aspects of immigration that you would like to learn about?
• Should UU St Pete take a public stance? On what aspects of immigration? Alone? With other UU congregations in FL? Our partner organizations, other Churches and Synagogues?

We would appreciate your feedback, as it will help us tailor our programs. Please send them to Karen Coale. Thanks.

CIW Strikes Pricing Deal With Food Giant

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) is now three for three with the world's major food service companies. This farmworker group announced that Sodexo has signed its Fair Food agreement.

That means integrated food and facilities management services giant Sodexo -- with $7.7 billion in annual revenue and 120,000 employees in the U.S., Canada and Mexico alone -- will pay extra for Florida tomatoes produced under a strict code of conduct. They will pay a 1.5-cent premium for every pound of tomatoes picked, with the extra money going directly to harvesters, who will now earn about 82 cents for each 32-pound bucket they pick, up from 50 cents per bucket. The raise means their annual earnings could rise from about $10,000 to between $16,000 and $17,000.

There are at least 30,000 migrant farmworkers in Florida's $400 million tomato industry, from which 95 percent of the nation's tomatoes come between October and June.

Sodexo joins the world's other two major food service companies, Compass and Aramark, which signed the agreement in the last year. The three companies have pledged to favor Florida growers who meet higher labor standards and to shun those associated with labor abuses.