Power of One’s campaign to make FGCU a KFC-Free Zone
Written by Regina Bale, President of the Power of One student animal rights group at FGCU
Power of One (more affectionately known as POO) began planning to make Florida Gulf Coast University a “KFC-Free Zone” in late September. We decided on our goals for the campaign to get 1000+ signatures on our petition, to let the student body know about KFC’s horrific practices when it comes to animal welfare, and to pass a resolution in the Student Senate by the end of the year banning KFC from the FGCU campus.
October is when we really got our feet wet. We created a Facebook group, sent out emails to our entire group, and tabled in the Student Union every Tuesday and Thursday from 2-4pm for the entire month of October. On the 6th we had our annual event the Walk for Farm Animals to benefit Farm Sanctuary and asked all walk participants to sign our petition.
In our university’s news paper Eagle News we had a shout out published in the issue from Oct. 10th stating “Kick the Bucket KFC Stinks.” On the 11th the Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education invited us to a student dialogue about food systems and climate change where we were able to talk about our university’s current and future food systems that would not include KFC. We were also invited to participate in the housing De-Stress Yourself event on the 16th where we talked about healthy eating, brought out an awesome skateboarding martial arts chicken, and spread the word about our KFC campaign. By the end of October we had collected 330 signatures
Throughout November POO petitioned at all meetings and events including having POO members take time at the beginning and end of classes to ask for signatures. Our biggest event in Nov. was the Animal Shelter Benefit Concert which alone produced 140+ signatures for the petition and made for an incredible animal friendly night. We also tabled our Turkey Day events including our Gentle Thanksgiving potluck.
As November came to a close we had roughly 500 signatures and had many Student Government (SG) senators sign the petition and suggest we move toward writing a resolution to ban KFC officially. In December we met with the Senate President who introduced us to the senator on the food services committee. Over the holiday break we wrote the resolution and in early January put it through the senate. We also made packets for the senators and committee members with leaflets and DVDs chronicling the appalling treatment of KFC chickens. During the first few weeks of January we wrote the senators, the president of the senate, and the SG president with our concerns about KFC. Our concerns also went to the food services committee along with the signatures collected.
Eagle News published an article about our campaign titled “Animal rights group petitions to keep KFC off campus” in the January 16th issue and published another shout out on the 23rd stating “Keep KFC Out!” On January 29, 2008 the resolution was read, reviewed, questioned, and then voted on, passing 14 to 2!
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