The National Farm Worker Ministry — which Presbyterians and the Hunger Program have been engaged with for decades — celebrates 40 years of solidarity and accompaniment with farm workers. Board chair Felix Garza and director Virginia Nesmith give some background and an invitation to support this work. Tomorrow, we’ll hear from Olga, Dominique and Maria about why they love NFWM.
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More than 90 years ago, state migrant ministries began providing services to farm workers. Decades later, those ministry leaders were ready when farm workers began organizing in the fields and called on religious groups to accompany them. In 1971, they founded NFWM as a national organization to mobilize faith community members in the farm worker struggle for justice.
NFWM Marches at Reynolds Tobacco
For 40 years, we have been privileged, along with you, to accompany farm workers in the fields and in the supermarkets, in labor camps and corporate offices, on the streets and in the halls of Congress.
You have helped farm workers win better wages and working conditions and the right to enforce those through union representation; the recognition from many food service companies that we all share in the responsibility to improve the conditions of those who pick our produce; and new laws such as those requiring mattresses in labor camps.
Yet we grieve for the many workers who continue to be exploited by our broken system, risking their health and their lives to put food on our table. With you, we remain steadfast to transforming the agriculture industry so that:
– No farm worker has to sleep 12 people to a trailer that has no ventilation.
– No farm worker dies from working in 100 degree heat without water or shade breaks.
– No farm worker suffers the horrible effects of being sprayed with toxic pesticides.
– No farm worker is cheated, paid for 48 sacks of oranges when they picked 53.
– No farm worker has to be silent in the face of abuse or risk being fired or deported.
We commit to saying “Yes” when farm workers ask for our help. We commit to engaging a new generation in this struggle. We commit to providing you with education and action opportunities so that together, we reach the day when each meal we sit down to is a meal we can eat with a clear conscience.
In celebration of 40 years of national work, our goal is to raise $40,000 in additional income. We recently learned about an exciting opportunity to have $5,000 of this appeal matched dollor-for-dollar by a new granting source. That means your anniversary gift is doubled – your $50 gift becomes $100 or your $100 gift becomes $200. Each donor to our anniversary campaign will receive an NFWM magnet in appreciation!
Click here to contribute online using our new secure donation system!
In Solidarity,
Felix Garza, President
Virgnia Nesmith, Executive Director