Wendy's has continuously refused to sign on to the Fair Food Program, an agreement designed to protect farmworkers' safety in the fields.

If you walked through midtown Manhattan at any point over the last two days, you may have heard cheering, singing, and rallying cries. And if you turned the right corner, you may have seen where those sounds were coming from: a small crowd of protesters huddled outside 280 Park Avenue at 48th Street.

This address is home to the offices of Nelson Peltz, non-executive chairman of the board of Wendy’s, the fast-food chain known for its “fresh, never frozen,” square burger patties and snarky Twitter presence. But the protesters—more than 70 farmworkers and their allies—are in New York to draw attention to a lesser-known aspect of Wendy’s business, and they traveled over 24 hours by bus to do it.

Specifically, these farmworkers are tomato pickers from Immokalee, Florida. And they are part of the “Freedom Fast,” a five-day hunger fast in support of fair labor practices and in protest of sexual violence in the fields.

But let’s take a step back for a moment. To understand this particular civic action, you need to be familiar with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a farmworkers’ rights group that was established in Immokalee in 1993.

You also need to know about the Fair Food Program (FFP). Established by CIW in 2005, the FFP is a supply-chain certification designed to combat exploitation in the fields. Here’s how it works: Tomato farms sign onto the FFP and promise to adhere to its labor standards. Tomato buyers sign on as a vow to purchase only from farms with approved labor standards. Additionally, signatories to the FFP—which includes multinational corporations like Walmart, McDonald’s, Subway, and Taco Bell—agree to pay a penny-per-pound premium to benefit workers.