Bread & Roses Fundraiser 2024
October 6, 2-6pm
The Great Meadow
Santa Barbara City College
Santa Barbara, CA
Since its inception in 1993, The Bread & Roses Community Celebration has brought the Central Coast together, becoming one of the region's largest progressive gatherings. For the past 30 years, they have celebrated our progressive community with an afternoon of fantastic food and drinks in a beautiful setting, empowering individuals and fostering connections. Flying Goat Cellars is proud to be a wine sponsor of the event for over a decade.
THE FUND believes that when communities have power, they can enact societal change. With help from their supporters, they are able to invest in, convene, and advocate for community organizations and leaders, ensuring they have the resources and support necessary to cultivate and maintain their organizing power. We are proud to be a sponsor of their annual event.
The Fund for Santa Barbara is a nonprofit community foundation advancing progressive change by strengthening movements for Economic, Environmental, Political, Racial, and Social Justice.
The idea of “Bread and Roses” is part of a historical tradition that began with the Lawrence, Massachusetts textile workers’ strike of 1912. Since that time, “Bread and Roses” has served as a slogan for many progressive struggles in the United States. For the most part, “Bread” has represented a living wage and “Roses” has referred to workers’ desire for dignity and respect.
On January 12, 1912 nearly 25,000 textile workers – mostly immigrant women – left the mills and poured into the streets of Lawrence, Massachusetts. After three months, the strike ended in a victory – with wage increases in mill towns throughout New England. The strike changed the face of both the labor and feminist movements. It was the first major labor action in U.S. history that was led by women, and for the first time there was a conscious effort to unite workers of all nationalities. Every union meeting was translated into 25 different languages.
It is in this spirit of collective action and coalition-building that the Fund for Santa Barbara continues to support grassroots activists and community organizations working for economic, environmental, political, racial and social justice.