UU Service Committee, UUSC

January 22, 2012

A Thank You Letter!

Dear Friends, thank you for supporting the work of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee with the Guest at Your Table gifts of $530.00.

Since 1939, supporters like you have helped UUSC become a leading voice in advancing human rights worldwide.  We pledge to honor your committment to us through our efforts to defend the human right to water, to restore and protect our civil liberties, to ensure workers' rights, and to preserve the rights of vulnerable people after disasters.

Your support will make a real difference in the lives of people in the United States and around the world.

Sincerely,

the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee

UU Service Committee, UUSC

January 2012

With the launch of our Choose Compassionate Consumption campaign this fall, UUSC supporters joined together to form a powerful block of consumer advocates.

In October, we targeted Hershey and the use of child labor in chocolate production, sending more than 1,100 letters to Hershey, along with samples of a competitor’s fair-trade chocolate. In November and December, UUSC supporters generated approximately $15,000 in sales for the Southern Agricultural Alternatives Cooperative, a socially responsible pecan-processing cooperative that creates jobs in southwest Georgia.

Now let’s use our power to make a positive difference in the lives of restaurant workers, by choosing where to eat based on how restaurants treat their employees!

The U.S. restaurant industry employs over 10 million workers nationwide and is one of the largest and fastest-growing sectors of the U.S. economy. But sadly, the restaurant industry also has a very high rate of workers’-rights violations.

That’s why the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC-United), a UUSC partner organization, has released the ROC National Diners’ Guide 2012: A Consumer Guide on the Working Conditions of American Restaurants. The guide rates restaurants throughout the country based on how they treat their workers, listing responsible restaurants where you can eat knowing that your server can afford to pay the rent and your cook isn’t working while sick.

Download the restaurant guide today — and use it to choose compassionate consumption when you dine out!

UUService Committee

At the end of the 2010-2011 fiscal year, the Social Action Circle had a surplus of $437.01. Members of the Circle voted to contribute that sum to UU Service Committee (UUSC) to be earmarked for what the UUSC continues to do in Haiti. That check was sent recently. As members of the church, that is your contribution. Thank you.

Four Bills of the Human Right To Water Bill Package have passed! After months of hard work from you and other UUSC and UULMCA supporters in California, the following four bills have become law:

• A.B. 983, which will help communities access funds for drinking water systems
• A.B. 1221, which will allow communities to be eligible for already allocated clean-up funds
• A.B. 938, which will make sure people know what is in their drinking water
• S.B. 244, which will require cities to develop plans for providing service to small communities

This is a tremendous victory. With leadership from the UU Legislative Ministry of California and the UU Service Committee, you have helped California take an enormous step forward in ensuring safe, sufficient, and affordable water for all, as we continue the work to pass A.B. 685 (the human right to water bill) in this next legislative year.

Protect A Child and Other Worthy Causes:  When you donate to the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee's (UUSC) Annual Fund, you are helping people around the world claim their human rights.  $30 can protect a Haitian child  living in a displacement camp from abuse, traffiking, and prostitution.  Find out what $65, $100, and more can do, and does, when you use it to support UUSC's work.