“The Costs and Joys of Discipleship”: Forty Years of the National Farm Worker Ministry

In honor of its 40th anniversary as a national organization and 90 years of solidarity with farm workers, NFWM conducted oral history interviews this year with major supporters around the country. From those interviews, we have condensed over ten hours of audio to ten roughly two minute audio pieces accompanied by photo slideshows in order to [...]

Farm Worker Focus on National Food Day

Today, October 24, is National Food Day! The organizers of National Food Day have partnered with groups across the country to have thousands of events that are oriented toward pushing for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, human way. One of the six principles that Food Day has adopted is to “Support fair conditions [...]

Intern Blog: Farm Workers and Small Farmers

Ryan Nilsen, NFWM intern through Duke Divinity School In our evening outreach to farm workers over the past few weeks, Octavio and I have ended up being able to have quite a few conversations with farm owners as well as farm workers. We don’t really seek them out (as most of them already speak English [...]

NFWM Intern Video Interview on Child Farmworkers

NFWM Student Action with Farmworkers intern Octavio Garcia-Ruiz on having grown up as a child farm worker. To see videos of other Student Action with Farmworkers interns discussing their experiences as child farm workers, click the links below: Leticia interview Victor interview

Intern Blog: Language and Power

Ryan Nilsen, NFWM intern through Duke Divinity School As Octavio and I walked up to the front step of an old trailer next to a tobacco field outside of Gibsonville, North Carolina, I asked him, “Do you mind speaking first again?” He smiled and said, “No problem, man.” It was an early summer Sunday afternoon, [...]

Is this really a love-song? About farm workers?

Ryan Nilsen, NFWM Intern Note: This sermon references Isaiah 5:1-7 and John 15:1-8. “Let me sing for my Beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard.” Now, I’m not a very good singer, and I am not going to call myself an expert on love-songs, but did you all just hear what the prophet Isaiah is calling [...]

Intern Blog: First Visit to Camps

Written by Octavio Garcia-Ruiz, NFWM intern through Student Action with Farmworkers. Sunday June 19th was the first day that we did outreach.  Driving out on the country roads felt good, like I was back home.  The camps that we went to were not too difficult to find.  The reason why were out there is not [...]

Intern Blog: First Full Week of NFWM Work

Written by Octavio Garcia-Ruiz, NFWM intern through Student Action with Farmworkers. Starting the first full week of work felt real good, I was excited.  I finally started what I came here to do.  There many new things that were learned, some good, most bad because of of what they were.  They were about how farmworkers [...]

A Christmas Story

David Haney is a member of the St Paul Catholic Church since 1995 and a member of the Pinellas Support Committee since 2003. Maria McCourt is a NFWM Board Member and Coordinator of the Pinellas Support Committee in Florida.

A Santa Story by David Haney
Maria and I, with the help of many wonderful supporters, contributors, and volunteers, visited some twenty migrant farm worker camps in Plant City and Dover each year providing these workers with food, clothing and Christmas gifts during the long winter months when they have little work and meager pay checks. This year we provided Christmas gifts to nearly 770 children.

One of the many generous contributors during the past two years has been Country Park Trailer Park, a 55+ community located in Clearwater, Florida. Most of these volunteers live up north but fly south to Clearwater during the winter months (Snow Geese). Many of the Country Park residents collected money and graciously provided Christmas Gifts to about 14 migrant families, living at a migrant camp outside of Plant City. A dozen of these Country Park residents and I drove in a convoy to a pre-designated migrant camp, our vehicles loaded with Christmas gifts, food, clothing items, and lots of Christmas cheer. As we arrived, we all got out of our vehicles and donned our red & white Santa hats. We knocked on the door of each of the six trailers, one by one. These individual “Santa’s” provided each family with Christmas gifts for each child, an impressive amount of food, a Christmas card, and some clothing. Then the Country Park volunteers sang “We Wish you a Merry Christmas” and “Feliz Navidad” before heading out to the next trailer, until all six trailers were visited.

While we were visiting each family in our Santa hats, singing Christmas songs, and delivering the bundles of toys, food and clothing, a small boy came running over to our group from across the street with a letter in his hand. No one knew who he was, running over by himself from a distant trailer. He wasn’t a resident of the trailer park we were visiting but it was difficult to ignore his enthusiasm. The boy, no older that seven years old, handed one of our volunteers a letter and then quickly disappeared back to his parent’s trailer, across the street. The top of the letter had a drawing of Santa Claus, where the little boy colored in Santa’s rose colored cheeks and large red hat. Underneath the Santa drawing were lines where the elementary grade teacher obviously instructed her little students to write a letter to Santa, using their best writing skills.

“Dear Santa Claus, How are you…would like 1….2….3. I like to hav a meshen tomes and two cars and I like three backogans”, signed Rigoberto.

NFWM Board & Staff Meet in Los Angeles July 30 & 31

The board & staff of NFWM met in Los Angeles the weekend of July 30 & 31, 2010. On the 30th, we traveled north to the area around Arvin and met with farm workers and UFW co-founder Dolores Huerta.
 

 
 
 
 
 
We then went to the edge of a grape vineyard and held a prayer vigil honoring those workers who have died working in the heat of California fields in recent years.
 
From there we went to Bakersfield, where NFWM President Felix Garza was featured speaker at an Immigration rally on the day that Arizona’s anti-immigrant bill was to go into effect. Before leaving Bakersfield, we had dinner at Believers in Jesus church and heard from several Giumarra workers.
 
We then traveled back to our conference site, Mt. St, Mary’s College. We were delighted to be joined throughout the weekend by co-founder of the Orange County Interfaith Committee to Aid Farmworkers and former NFWM board member, Jeanne Giordano and her husband Roy.
 
 
 
 
 

For more photos of the weekend, click HERE.