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Crowds Turn Out to Protest and Support Owner of Seed to Table Market in Naples

Seed to Table Market supporters before the rally began.
Amy Shumaker/WGCU
Seed to Table Market supporters before the rally began.

More than 300 people turned out for an All Lives Matter rally at Seed to Table Market in Naples on Saturday, and to express support for its owner, Alfie Oakes. The event was planned as a preemptive response to a protest that had been organized by a group called the Activist Protection League SWFL. That protest was focused on the store's owner, Alfie Oakes, whose recent Facebook posts have described the Black Lives Matter movement, and the coronavirus pandemic, as hoaxes.

Black Lives Matter supporters protest Seed to Table and Oakes Farms.
Kinfay Moroti/Hopeful Images
Black Lives Matter supporters protest Seed to Table and Oakes Farms.

About 100 people attended the Activist Protections League's protest, which began about an hour later and was immediately drenched by a downpour. There were moments of tension between the two groups, as one side chanted "Black Lives Matter" in unison, and the other stood just yards away holding signs saying things like "All Lives Matter" and "Support our President," with Collier County Sheriff’s Deputies standing between the groups. Shortly after the rain began most of the Seed to Table supporters dispersed, but the Black Lives Matter supporters continued protesting in the rain for several more hours.

The School District of Lee County announced Thursday morning that it will no longer do business with Oakes Farms in response to his recent remarks on social media.

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