FARMWORKER AWARENESS WEEK is March 27-31!
This is a time of the year when we invite you to honor the legacy of Cesar Chavez and the farm worker movement for justice and help raise awareness about the importance of farm workers and their labor to all of our lives every day.
During Farmworker Awareness week 2017, there are many opportunities to support farm workers and honor their work. Both CIW’s Return to Human Rights Tour and the UFW’s Cesar Chavez marches will be taking place during this time.
Additionally:
- Student Action with Farmworkers offers resources for creating more awareness.
- Observe a Farmworker Sabbath with resources from Rural and Migrant Ministries of New York which include some of NFWM’s worship resources.
- Collect long sleeve t-shirts with the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs
- Get the dates on your church/denomination calendar as Cumberland Presbyterian Church did.
- And put on your calendar – any time this year – to host a House Party to raise awareness.
And we invite you to make this a daily prayer.
God of All Human Beings,
We pray for farm workers who toil in our fields and orchards and vineyards to harvest fruits and vegetables for our tables.
We thank farm workers for their hard work,
for their resilience,
for their expertise,
for their strength.
We are grateful for the food farm workers bring us to eat and the way these gifts nourish our bodies. We are grateful for the knowledge farm workers possess about land and plants and trees and flowers.
We thank farm workers for the ideas to keep up the pace of harvest, to bear heavy loads, to recognize dangers to food safety, to get the work done. We thank farm workers for patience with language and communication.
We are grateful for the love farm workers have for family and the way they talk about their hopes and dreams. We are grateful for farm worker smiles and laughter in the midst of dirt and toil. We thank farm workers for commitment to home, to children and parents. We thank farm workers for willingness to work hard and determination to be paid for it.
We pray for farm workers who toil in our fields and orchards and vineyards to harvest fruits and vegetables for our tables.
We ask that farm worker wages be generous and adequate and not be stolen. We pray that farm workers be treated with dignity and respect for the work they do and the knowledge they have. We ask that farm workers have clean, cool water to quench thirst and shade in which to get relief from the hot sun.
We pray that farm workers have decent housing and nourishing meals for rest and replenishment after work. We ask for safe practices to prevent exposure to pesticides, from spraying or drift or application. We pray for warm showers and good laundry facilities so that heads, hands, feet and clothes can be washed clean from chemicals and dirt and sweat following long, hard days.
We ask for freedom from harassment and sexual violence, especially for the women who do this work. We pray for safe transportation to and from the fields, to and from homes, to and from countries of origin. We ask for paths to citizenship for farm workers who have resided with us years and years and for any who want to come here.
We pray for farm workers who wish to travel to and from home countries as seasonal workers, and ask for documents that remove stigma and fear of status in the US. We pray for comfort for farm workers who grieve and are homesick, for spiritual nurture to farm workers who seek it, for education opportunities for family members who travel in migrant streams.
We ask for all the things that we want for ourselves as human beings, O God.
And while we ask, we pray that you will give us the courage and resolve to stand WITH farm workers in their quest for dignity and justice.
Amen.
