Dignity Tour recap; next stop: Maine March on Hannaford!
Posted Fri, 10/29/2021 - 12:35pm
We have wrapped up the Dignity Tour, our largest speaking tour ever! Over the past month, we have traveled to 7 states, giving a total of 29 presentations to audiences around the region.
This massive undertaking wouldn’t have been possible without the generous support of allies who organized stops, provided housing and food, and made donations to keep us going. The Dignity Tour connected Migrant Justice with hundreds of new supporters, who learned about Milk with Dignity and committed to help expand the program to protect more workers’ rights and continue transforming the dairy industry.
10/2 Burlington, VT: The tour kicked off with a celebration of 4 years since Ben & Jerry’s joined Milk with Dignity, launching the program. We ended the celebration with a car caravan to the nearby Hannaford, urging the supermarket chain to follow in Ben & Jerry’s footsteps
10/5, York, ME: We started the first leg of the tour in Maine with a presentation at the York Public Library, hosted by Southern Maine Showing up for Racial Justice
10/6, Waterville, ME: We continued up the Maine coast to Colby College, where the Oak Institute for Human Rights hosted us as part of a lecture series
10/7 Belfast, ME: We stopped by the Possibility Alliance in Belfast for a lunch presentation
10/7 Freedom, ME: And that night, met with a big crowd on Southpaw Farm
10/8 Portland, ME: We traveled back down the coast to meet with legislators and community members at a stop hosted by Maine DSA
10/9 Lewiston, ME: We wrapped up the Maine leg of the tour with a presentation in St. Mary’s Nutritional Center hosted by Central Maine Showing Up for Racial Justice
10/12 Keene, NH: After a couple webinar virtual presentations, we hit the road again, heading to Keene State College
10/13, Brattleboro, VT: The next morning, we headed over to the Retreat Farm for a presentation hosted by the Groundworks Collective
10/13, Rutland, VT: And that evening, we headed north for a presentation hosted by Castelton Indivisible at the Vermont Farmers Food Center
10/13, Hardwick, VT: Meanwhile, across the state, another group presented with a huge crowd at the Hardwick Grange Hall, hosted by the Small Farm Guild
10/15, Thetford, VT: The Upper Valley Affinity Group hosted us at the Thetford Hill Church for the first of several presentations in the Upper Valley region of Vermont and New Hampshire
10/15, Albany, NY: And that same day, a crew took off for New York state, making our first stop in Albany to meet with the Radix Center, a community garden and local food hub
10/16 Annandale-on-Hudson, NY: We continued down the Hudson Valley for a big presentation at Bard College, hosted by BardEATS
10/16, Brooklyn, NY: And that afternoon, we made it to NYC for a presentation with middle-schoolers and faculty at the Brooklyn Urban Garden Charter School
10/17, Monkton, VT: Back in Vermont, we joined the Willowell Foundation’s Perennial Harvest Festival
10/17, Boston, MA: Meanwhile, down in Boston, a crew presented with students at Northeastern University, hosted by the NU Law School’s Students for Immigration Justice group
10/18, Providence, RI: From Massachusetts, we traveled down to Rhode Island to present at Brown University, hosted by Brown’s CareFree Clinic
10/19, Kingston, RI: The next morning, we continued heading south to the University of Rhode Island, meeting with students and faculty in a presentation hosted by the Sociology Department
After our URI presentation, we made a quick stop by the beach to leave our mark in the sand...
10/19, Cambridge, MA: And then it was back north to Massachusetts to present at Harvard University, hosted by a collection of groups including the Harvard TPS Coalition, Harvard College Act on a Dream, Harvard Student Labor Action Movement
10/20, Barre, VT: The next day, we were back in Vermont, presenting to a group at the Presbyterian Church of Barre hosted by Rural Vermont
10/22, West Brattleboro, VT: After another webinar virtual presentation, we hit the road again. The All Souls Unitarian Universalists hosted us at their Meeting House in southern Vermont
10/23, WIndham, CT: We met with community members and UConn students at community kitchen and food hub CLiCK Willimantic, giving our first presentation in Connecticut, the 7th state on the tour
10/24, Grafton, MA: We started back north, stopping at the Global Village Farm to give a presentation hosted by the food justice organization Uprooted and Rising
10/24, Hanover, NH: That evening, we made it to Dartmouth College and presented at La Casa, a Spanish-speaking residence on campus. This marked the official end of the tour, but...
10/28 Burlington, VT: ...we decided to tack on a couple more presentations! We met with more students from Dartmouth who were traveling through Burlington and staying at the Rock Point Conference Center of the Episcopalian Church
10/29, Burlington, VT: And we ended the Dignity Tour (for real this time!) with a presentation at the University of Vermont.
After our 7-state, 29-presentation speaking tour, we are soon heading back on the road for our most ambitious action yet! The speaking tour was a tremendous success, but to bring Hannaford on board we know that we can’t let up the pressure. That’s why we are calling on Milk with Dignity supporters to converge on Portland, Maine for a march and rally near the Hannaford headquarters.
We need you to march with us on 11/8 from 3-6pm in Portland! Take these two important steps: