Located on the edge of the Florida Everglades, Collier County is home to a diverse demographic, including Naples business people, Immokalee farm workers, and Seminole Native Americans who were forced to move south during North Florida’s Seminole Wars of the early 1800s. Collier County sits at the southern end of Florida’s Gulf Coast and includes Naples, Immokalee, and Marco Island. The county was formed from Lee County in 1923 and named after New York City advertising mogul and real estate developer Baron Collier, who relocated to Southwest Florida and built the Tamiami Trail (a section of State Route 41) to connect Naples to Fort Myers and Tampa in exchange for having the newly-formed county bear his name. Between Collier County and Broward County on Florida’s East Coast lies about 110 miles of Everglades, including the Big Cypress National Preserve. Travelers are well advised to fill their gas tanks and be sure they have plenty to eat before departing the eastern limits of Collier County.
The county covers a total of 2,305 square miles, making it the largest in Florida for land area and fourth-largest for total area (including water). The 2000 census shows a population of 251,377; but because of rapid growth in all of Southwest Florida, the 2019 population is estimated at 372,880.
Between Naples and Immokalee is Ave Maria, a planned community founded in 2005, built around Ave Maria University and the large Ave Maria Catholic Church. Established by the Ave Maria Development Company, led by Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monaghan, it calls itself “the fastest-growing community in Southwest Florida.”
Immokalee is an unincorporated area, about 40 miles northwest of the Everglades, 50 miles southwest of Lake Okeechobee, and 45 miles northeast of Naples. Its name comes from the Seminole tongue, the Miccosukee word for “my home.” Immokalee’s year-round population is about 25,000, with a harvest-season count of about 40,000. The influx of migrants who arrive to assist in planting, picking, processing, and pricing the tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, eggplant, cantaloupe, and watermelon are predominantly from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Haiti. When picking slows down in Immokalee, these workers follow the harvest, leading them into northern Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and as far north as Michigan, New Jersey, and New York.
Although Immokalee, Florida, might seem an unlikely tourist destination, the area has much to offer in recreation and natural wonders. The Seminole Casino is known as one of Florida’s most elegant casinos (there are five in other areas), comparable, in the estimation of some, to Las Vegas establishments. With its more than 1300 slot machines, 38 live game tables, gourmet grill where local produce is turned into tantalizing feasts, and hotel featuring 19 suites and 81 deluxe rooms, Immokalee’s casino attracts tourists and hosts group events from all parts of Florida as well as other states.
Other area attractions include the Immokalee Regional Raceway, Immokalee Pioneer Museum at Roberts Ranch, Lake Trafford Marina airboat tours, Lake Trafford fishing excursions (listed as a top bass fishing destination), the Pepper Ranch Preserve, and the not-to-be-missed Immokalee Produce Center where local farmers market their crops. No one should leave the Produce Center without trying an ear of roasted corn with a choice of butter, mayonnaise, or spicy taco seasoning–or for the adventurous, all three.
Just 13 miles west of Immokalee, tourists will find the Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, designated a national natural landmark and home to the largest old growth Bald Cypress forest in North America. A 2.5-mile boardwalk is “a journey into the heart of the Everglades ecosystem” (Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary website). The sanctuary is also famous for its “super” ghost orchids, a tourist attraction in themselves.
Immokalee, “my home,” is a quiet, sleepy little town where a passer-through will see a steady stream of pedestrians, including mothers pushing baby strollers which carry both babies and the day’s collection of household supplies, since few of the lower-income residents own cars. The aromas of authentic Mexican food, as well as a few other ethnic cuisines, fill the air. Chickens roam freely along the streets and in the yards of local businesses, foraging for food.
Entering Immokalee from the east, along State Route 29, which becomes Main Street and then Immokalee Road, to the left is New Market Road, which leads to the Produce Center. Continuing west, the driver will see a few large churches, some banks, businesses, restaurants, the usual assortment of fast-food joints, University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Florida State University College of Medicine’s Immokalee Health Education Site, and some of Immokalee’s more comfortable homes. Closer to town, SR 29 crosses Lake Trafford Road and Roberts Ranch Road before passing through the quaint “downtown” area. Here on Immokalee’s west side are located the offices for Coalition of Immokalee Workers and Misión Peniel, a Presbyterian mission operated by the Peace River Presbytery of the PC(USA).
The contrast between the east end of town and the west end is stark. The comfortable homes of the east are replaced by ramshackle trailers which most people would think uninhabitable but which are in fact inhabited by farm workers and their families who pay a large percentage of their meager earnings to live in deplorable conditions. In one of the more shocking contrasts, Juanita’s Restaurant–which serves authentic tacos, fajitas, and other Mexican favorites at incredibly low prices–and Misión Peniel–which ministers to the poorest of the farm workers–are located only minutes away from the glitzy Seminole Casino and a short distance from the upscale Ave Maria community.
Within the Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island Statistical Area, Immokalee’s economy is at the low end of the scale. According to the site datausa.io, the median household income is $29,308; the median property value, $99,700; and the poverty rate, 43.4%. The same site lists the most common occupations of the employed year-round Immokalee residents as agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting (35%); construction trades (11%); and administrative and support and waste management services (8%). The highest-paying industries are real estate; public administration; and professional, scientific, and technical services.
Immokalee’s school system includes eight elementary and middle schools, Immokalee High School, Immokalee Technical Center, the PACE Program, Immokalee Teen Parenting Program, The Phoenix Program-Immokalee, and Immokalee Technological Academy. Schools also have special programs for migrant children.
At the lowest end of Immokalee’s socio-economic structure are the migrant farm workers, who labor long days in the fields under Florida’s blazing sun to earn a bare subsistence. For these people who harvest and process the crops we all enjoy eating, the work day begins early with a long wait for buses which pick up the workers and transport them to the fields. Although waiting for the buses, riding to the fields, and then waiting again for the dew to dry consume a significant amount of workers’ time, they are paid only for the buckets of crops they pick. For each bucket a worker picks, he or she receives a token, which can later be redeemed for an average of fifty to sixty cents per token, depending on the farm. Buckets weigh approximately 32 pounds when filled; so to earn the $500 necessary to pay the weekly rent for a family of four, a working couple would have to pick 1,000 buckets–or 32,000 pounds, or 16 tons of tomatoes–in one week, in the blazing Florida sun with no shade and no time for breaks. And that pays only the rent, leaving nothing for food, clothing, and other necessities.
Despite the fact that Immokalee supplies the nation’s food retailers and dinner tables with almost all of the winter tomatoes grown in the United States, along with the other fruits and vegetables mentioned above, many of the people who pick those crops go hungry and live in unimaginable conditions. A family of two adults and two children pays $500 per week (yes, if you’re doing the math, that’s $2000 per month) for half of a trailer; trailers often have leaking roofs, large holes in the floor, widespread mold, malfunctioning appliances, and unsafe steps and entryways. The family may be forced to share the trailer with strangers and to live in fear within their own homes.
Housing, land, and almost everything else in Immokalee are in the hands of four or five families, who care more about their profits than about the safety and well-being of their tenants. Rent-gouging is the norm, and those who dare to complain can expect eviction. The same families control local businesses and set price points in local stores, placing those prices out of reach for farm-worker families.
Abuses amounting to slavery dominated the fields of Immokalee for many years, earning Immokalee the title “ground zero for modern-day slavery.” In addition to wage theft, beatings, and human trafficking, 80% of farm-worker women reported experiencing sexual assault and harassment in the fields. Farms which employ migrant workers are owned by giant companies; they are not family farms. Companies employ crew leaders to organize the field labor. The crew leaders, who supervise work in the fields, were responsible for the rampant abuse of farm workers who had no contact with the farm owners and nowhere to turn for help in escaping their cruel treatment.
In 1993, six farm workers, two of whom were Greg Asbed and Lucas Benitez, met weekly in a borrowed room of a local church to form the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW); Gerardo Reyes later joined the leadership of the organization. The CIW today is active not only in Florida but also in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and New Jersey. The CIW website describes the conditions they were formed to confront:
In 21st century America, slavery remains woven into the fabric of our daily lives. On any given day, the fruit and vegetables we eat or drink may have been picked by workers in involuntary servitude. Men and women are held against their will by their employers through the use of violence – including beatings, shootings, and pistol-whippings – threats of violence, and coercion.
The CIW’s Anti-Slavery Program has uncovered, investigated, and assisted in the prosecution of numerous multi-state, multi-worker farm slavery operations across the Southeastern U.S., helping liberate over 1,200 workers held against their will. The U.S. Department of State credits the CIW with ‘pioneering’ the worker-centered and multi-sectoral approach to prosecutions, and hails the CIW’s work on some of the earliest cases as the ‘spark’ that ignited today’s national anti-slavery movement.
From 1993 to 2001, the CIW’s focus was on cleaning up existing abuses and human-rights violations, forcing farm owners and field bosses to abide by a higher set of standards. Workers were connected with farm owners, farm owners were held liable for their field bosses’ abuses, and workers were provided hotlines for reporting abuse. In 2001, the group progressed to the prevention phase of their initiative by forming the Campaign for Fair Food, which asked the nation’s largest food retailers to pay one extra penny for each pound of tomatoes they purchase and to agree to the standards set forth by the Fair Food Program. Since their formation, the CIW has succeeded in winning Fair Food Agreements with Walmart, Ahold USA, Taco Bell, Chipotle, McDonald’s, Subway, Compass Group, Yum Brands, Burger King, Aramark, Sodexo, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and The Fresh Market. They continue to work toward securing agreements with Wendy’s and Publix.
The CIW website credits their efforts with achieving
more humane farm labor standards and fairer wages for farm workers in their tomato suppliers’ operations. Alongside farm workers and 90% of tomato growers, participating buyers are a key part of the Fair Food Program (FFP). Through the Program, these buyers support a wage increase through paying an additional penny per pound and require a human-rights-based Code of Conduct to be implemented on the farms that grow their tomatoes. Not only does the FFP make a substantial difference for workers’ wages, but it transforms the labor environment in Florida’s fields into a workplace rooted in mutual respect and basic dignity for farm workers.
The CIW stands today as a model of worker-driven social responsibility (WSR) and is leading a 21st-century human rights revolution. Recently the Vermont Dairy Milk with Dignity program was formed, inspired by the CIW’s model and guided by the CIW leadership team.
For more information on the CIW, watch the documentary film Food Chains.
Thanks to the CIW, the participating businesses in the FFP, and many other groups who have responded to the calls to help erase human-rights violations in Immokalee, the farm workers live better lives today than they did several decades ago. Yet the shortage of decent, affordable housing and the inability to buy sufficient nutritious food for their families leave the farm workers even now living in extreme poverty. Organizations such as Misión Peniel, the Guadeloupe Church, and the Amigo Center offer needed assistance by providing food and other supplies; but these organizations lack the resources to address the housing problem. Habitat for Humanity works in Immokalee as in many other communities across the world, but the farm workers fall below the income threshold to qualify for a Habitat home and their migrant lifestyle does not lend itself to home ownership.
Since destruction done by Hurricane Irma in 2017 exacerbated the already-dire housing conditions, the need for action has become even more critical. Inspired by the efforts of many organizations which rushed to offer post-hurricane relief to those most severely affected and by our bonds with the farm workers through affiliations with the CIW and Misión Peniel, a group of concerned people formed the Immokalee Fair Housing Alliance to build new safe, decent, hurricane-resistant housing.
Immokalee has a rich history and is vital to this nation’s food supply. It is called “my home” by a remarkably diverse population, demonstrated graphically by a group that descended upon Roberts Ranch in the summer of 2016. The ranch that day was the venue for a speech by a nationally known politician, but what made a far greater impact than the speaker’s words was the audience, which resembled a scene from a Nathaniel Hawthorne story. There, gathered in a semicircle around the makeshift stage, were Naples elites, Immokalee farm workers, Seminole Native Americans, local politicians, old people, young people, black people, brown people, red people, and white people. All were joined in one congenial group, applauding and chanting in unison.
The IFHA and Misión Peniel dream of an Immokalee where that Roberts Ranch scene will be the daily norm, where every citizen–regardless of race, social status, or income level–will live in dignity and harmony and will have decent, secure, affordable housing and enough food for themselves and their children. Every human being deserves a secure home.
We ask anyone who likes to eat, who appreciates the hard work done by the good people who harvest our food, and who believes that every human being has dignity and worth to please consider making contributions to the IFHA, Misión Peniel, and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.
By Barb Woolard Griffith