Black Lives Matter.

NC Council of Churches

Strength in Unity, Peace through Justice

How Your Congregation Can Celebrate National Farmworker Awareness Week

· · 1 Comment

This week – March 24th through 31st – is National Farmworker Awareness Week. This is a time for us to recognize the two to three million men, women and children who perform often dangerous and backbreaking work to ensure our nation’s abundant, low-cost food supply. There are many ways that your congregation can take part, including:

  •  Organize a long-sleeved shirt drive. The Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs is hosting a national long-sleeve drive to help farmworkers avoid exposure to pesticides. There are ten drop-off locations in North Carolina.
  • Attend a local event. A national calendar is listed here.
  • Invite a panel of farmworkers to speak to your congregation. Contact jennie@ncchurches.org for more information.
  • Organize a teach-in or presentation about farmworker issues. You can use farmworker factsheets to create a presentation.
  • Take up a love offering and donate it to the Episcopal Farmworker Ministry or other local farmworker advocacy group.
  • Include farmworkers in your worship service. The National Farmworker Ministry has a number for faith-based resources including prayers, litanies and sample sermons.
  • Use our Bible Study curriculum, Hands of Harvest, Hearts of Justice, with your Sunday School or other group.

Proverbs 12:23 states, “The field of the poor may yield much food, but it is swept away through injustice.” Farmworker Awareness Week is an opportunity to make our food system more just.  Try to commit to doing something this week to honor the critical contributions that farmworkers make to our economy and to our society.

About Jennie Belle, Former Immigration and Farmworkers Director

Jennie was born and raised in Savannah, GA. She moved to Texas for her undergraduate education at Rice University, during which time she studied in Mexico, Peru and Argentina and participated in service projects in Central America. After graduation she moved to Spain for a year to teach English. Jennie then came to North Carolina for a dual degree MDiv/MSW graduate program at Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill where her work focused on advocating for farmworkers and organizing churches for social justice. Recently graduated, Jennie is excited to use these skills in her role at the Council of Churches as she works to help improve conditions for immigrants and farmworkers in the state.

Jennie lives in Durham and attends First Presbyterian Church. In her free time she enjoys dancing, distance running, traveling, walking her dog, and planning her upcoming wedding. Jennie can be reached at: jennie@ncchurches.org.

Reader Interactions

More Like This

Politics of Eating
Partner Congregations Provide Sanctuary for Woman in Chapel Hill
Council hires new Program Coordinator for Immigration Advocacy

Comments

  1. Dave Austin says

    The additional, powerful action that congregations could take in North Carolina is to join farmworkers and their organization FLOC — the Farm Labor Organizing Committee — in pressuring RJ Reynolds to make the policy changes in its tobacco supply chain that would actually allow tobacco farmworkers a voice, and would ultimately improve living and working conditions for 30,000 farmworkers. The way to do that right now: commit to attending FLOC’s “March on Reynolds” — the 7th year that farmworker supporters will attend RJ Reynolds shareholders meeting: May 7th; RJR Headquarters in Winston-Salem. For more information: https://www.facebook.com/events/383153628536172/

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Anonymous comments or comments that target individuals will not be posted (please include your first and last name). All comments must be on topic and respectful. Comments will not be posted until they have been reviewed by a moderator. Comments do not reflect the positions of the NC Council of Churches.