Recently, Women and Girls Thriving received a grant from the Brookline Community Foundation to use the garden on their property. The garden has not been cared for the last couple of years so it is very overgrown. Just a couple weeks ago we started a garden group through Women and Girls Thriving to plan and run the garden. The goal of the garden is to grow healthy food, but also to build community and leadership. A portion of the food grown will also go to the Brookline Food Pantry.

Support a strong Child Nutrition Act!

1) Send this PC(USA) Action Alert to your representatives in Congress:  capwiz.com/pcusa

2) Have your congregation sign onto this organizational letter to Congress for the Farm to School Act:  bit.ly/org-sign

3) Sign your name to the citizen sign-on letter:  bit.ly/pcusa-cnr

Presbyterian Women, Presbyterian Hunger Program, PC(USA) Office of Public Witness, and Educate a Child Initiative are joining with our interfaith partners in Washington DC and the National Farm to School Network and the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition to advocate for a strong Child Nutrition Act that also advances farm to school priorities, all with a shared goal of healthier children who are ready to learn, and resilient local food and farm systems.

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”   – Nelson Mandela

*** Download the PDF flyer to share with your congregation and others ***

Campaign for Fair Wages!

The Presbyterian Hunger Program, Presbyterian Women and the Presbyterian Office of Public Witness is joining with congregations, interfaith partners, the Alliance for Fair Food, Interfaith Worker Justice and ROC-United to advance justice in the fields and poverty reduction for all workers through fair wages.

People of faith call for justice in the fields &
living wages to end hunger!

1) Tell Wendy’s to join the Fair Food Program bit.ly/pcusa-fairfood

2) Advocate to raise the minimum wage bit.ly/raise-wage

3) End wage theft www.wagetheft.org

4) Become a Worker Justice Congregation bit.ly/justice-church

5) Organize to protect workers’ rights

*** Download the PDF flyer to share with your congregation and others ***

A Place at the Table is a documentary that was released in 2012 that details the current reality of hunger in the United States. Did you know that roughly 50 million people in this country do not know where their next meal will come from? By watching this documentary you will get an overview of this issue and will learn about the social, political, and personal aspects of hunger. The film focuses on telling the stories of three families and their struggles with hunger and food insecurity. These messages, along with comments made throughout the film by others, make the documentary very powerful and worth watching. If you do not know much about hunger in the U.S this is an eye-opening video. If you are familiar with the issue of hunger, you will likely still learn something new and become more motivated to help end hunger in the U.S.

While the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is not currently boycotting Sakuma Bros. farms, we serve on the board and financially support the National Farm Worker Ministry, which is boycotting Sakuma Bros. in solidarity with Familias Unidas por la Justicia and along with several Presbyterian Hunger Program grantee partners from around the country. Last month, the president of Farm Worker Ministry Northwest, Gabriela Raquel Ríos, PhD, met with Danny Weeden, the CEO of Sakuma Bros. The dialogue will continue this Friday when National Farm Worker Ministry board members, including a PC(USA) representative will meet with Mr. Weeden and John Erb, vice president at Driscoll’s in Washington DC.

Gabriela gives her account of the day below and this video gives the highlights.

Following the National Farm Worker Ministry’s endorsement of the Familias Unidas por la Justicia (FUJ) called boycott of Sakuma Bros., Driscoll’s berries and Häagen-Dazs strawberry ice cream, we have been urging farm worker supporters to sign postcards to the companies.  We have thus far received postcards from 750 people of faith and conscience around the country.  A delegation from our partner Farm Worker Ministry Northwest agreed to deliver your postcards in person to Sakuma Bros. CEO Danny Weeden.  What follows is the report of that delivery attempt.  While Mr. Weeden would not accept your postcards, know that the message you – a supporter of justice for farm workers – wanted to send was heard by the company.

Sakuma CEO Danny Weeden Asks for “Dialogue” But Refuses to Accept Your Cards

by Gabriela Raquel Ríos, PhD, President, Farm Worker Ministry Northwest

Dr. Rios reports to the crowd waiting outside of Sakuma offices, including FUJ President Ramon Torres (center) and Tirso Moreno, General Coordinator of Farmworker Association of Florida (left) about her meeting with Mr. Weeden. Debi Covert-Bowlds connects the NFWM national office via her phone.

On January 8, I and Farm Worker Ministry-Northwest (FWM-NW) members, Debi Covert-Bowlds, Carla Shafer, Kristen Barber and Mike Betz traveled to Mt. Vernon in hopes of meeting with Sakuma Bros. CEO, Danny Weeden in support of Familias Unidas por la Justicia (FUJ). Such a meeting, we later discovered, has not been granted to any FUJ member.