July 2019
NFWM News & Action Alerts
In this issue:
  • Legislation Matters:
  • Blue Cards and Overtime
  • Heat Relief Campaign
  • Harvest of Justice Event
  • EFI Keeps Growing the Good
  • NFWM says Good Bye to Susan Alan
  • Friends We Will Miss
  • Saying Hello to New Friends
  • YAYA Pursues Food Justice
Use Your Voice as a Citizen --
Push Legislation for Farm Workers
NFWM continues to push for both the Agricultural Worker Program Act (“Blue Card” bill) and the Fairness for Farm Workers Act (Overtime bill) in Congress. Both are significant pieces of legislation for farm workers and for securing a stable agricultural work force and a sustainable agricultural system. 

The most pressing need now is to increase the number of co-sponsors in Congress. Have you contacted your Congressional Representative? Please do so today! Letters, emails, calls, and visits all help farm workers. When you reach out, let NFWM know so we can keep track of how many times they are contacted. Send that information to jtaylor@nfwm.org More NFWM info HERE.
   
New! Heat Relief Campaign Legislation
Farm workers are on the front lines of climate change
How many hours or minutes a day are you in the sun? Asuncion Valdivia, a 53-year-old farm worker, died in July 2004 from heatstroke after working a 10-hour day picking grapes in the 100-degree sun. No ambulance responded because employees were unable to provide the vineyard's location. Asuncion died in the car as his son tried frantically to reach a hospital. Summer heat is bearing down on us with temperatures reaching in the triple figures,

This week, a bill titled the “Asuncion Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act” (HR3668) was introduced to require the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to implement a national heat stress standard.
 
Soaring temperatures endanger thousands of farm workers and warehouse workers who work in unventilated locations. Heat illness can be prevented by access to training, water, shade and rest breaks. But many employers won't provide these basic needs voluntarily, so federal legislation is needed.
 
Take action! Send your email today , write a letter, and/or call to ask your Congressional representatives to support this vital bill.
Keep Growing the Good!
NFWM helped promote the Equitable Food Initiative (EFI) in recent weeks. If you are on the west coast, buy EFI products at Costco and let the management know you support it.

If you are not on the west coast, tell your area Costco that you think EFI certification is important and a good consumer choice for socially responsible foods.
NFWM Says Good Bye to Susan Alan
For 17 years Susan Alan has been part of the life of the National Farm Worker Ministry. She has at times been and done a little bit of everything. If you called the office, you were most likely to hear her voice first. If you e-mailed the organization, you most likely heard back from her. If you gave money, you most likely received a thank you she wrote. If you attended a board meeting or other major event, you most likely were met first by her. If you read the e-news or newsletter, she has been the primary writer. If you needed resources, she created many of them and provided much of the content on our website. 

In recent years, Susan was the key staff person for the Boycott of Sakuma and Driscoll’s berries with Familias Unidas that was settled in 2016, in large part due to her leadership in NFWM’s impact. She has also been the primary staff person in relation to FLOC and their tobacco campaign and has been an integral part of supporting the Triangle Friends of Farmworkers in NC. And, since the office moved to North Carolina, Susan shaped the lives of our interns as their mentor/coordinator.
 
Susan has been embedded in the work of the Ministry for such a long time that it is hard to imagine this work without her but at this time has determined that she will move on and explore new opportunities to help make a difference in our world. We wish her well in her next endeavor and will miss her presence at the ministry. You can contact Susan by e-mail at marysusanalan@gmail.com or reach her at 314-620-0859 to share your messages of appreciation for her 17 years of faithful and dedicated service.
And enjoy the following photo memories:
Friends We Will Miss
Bruce D. Hanson ¡PRESENTE!

The National Farm Worker Ministry lost one of our dearest, oldest, and wisest friends. D. Bruce Hanson passed away May 16, 2019 after a brief illness. For decades Bruce served as a consultant to the Executive Committee of the Board and the Executive Director of NFWM. Bruce Hanson personified grace. We, along with all who knew Bruce, miss him. With the multitudes we call out, “¡PRESENTE Bruce Hanson!” Read more:
Jack Preiss ¡PRESENTE!
Jack and Joan Preiss long held an important and cherished place in the family of the National Farm Worker Ministry. Jack Preiss passed away on April 14, 2019 at home in Durham, NC. He was 99 years old and was preceded by  Joan’s death  June 1, 2012. With deep appreciation for all that both Joan and Jack did for decades to agitate society’s status quo and our individual complacencies and stand on the right side of justice for farm workers, we call out, ¡PRESENTE!
Say Hello to New Friends!
Hello from Haley! Intern from Duke
 Hello Everyone!
My name is Haley, and I am the National Farm Worker Ministry’s Duke Divinity School intern for this summer. Unlike most other Divinity school interns, I am serving in a pre-placement which means I have not yet started school at Duke. I am coming directly from undergraduate school at North Carolina State University. There I received a bachelor’s in philosophy and a bachelor’s in anthropology. I am excited to be with NFWM this summer so that I can learn about how I can impact my community in healthier, sustaining ways by supporting farm workers in search of justice. I also hope to grow in my own faith this summer and pray that God will open my eyes to see the trials of others. I want to take what I learn from working with NFWM into the classroom come August, so I can connect my theological education with the world we live in. I believe that my experiences this summer will have a lasting impact on my life since I am interested in nonprofits and how they can fit into ministry. I am wishing you and yours a happy and healthy summer!

To welcome Haley, email her at ddsintern@nfwm.org


Taylor Snider - Interim YAYA Coordinator - Florida
My name is Taylor Snider, and I am the Interim YAYA Coordinator here in Orlando Florida! I have been working closely with the YAYAs on their projects, and was a YAYA myself. Some might remember me from the board meeting in Orlando. As the granddaughter, and daughter of farm workers myself, this is a cause that I believe in wholeheartedly. I have been helping the YAYAs gear up for some exciting upcoming projects. YAYA is currently working on filming a training video for letter drops, one of the methods we have used in the past to support not only FLOC’s Vuse boycott, but also the Darigold campaign at Starbucks. In addition to this, we are trying to find new ways to support our community, this has started with reaching out to local community gardens and farm worker spaces to ask what they would need of us. 

To contact Taylor, email at tsnider@nfwm.org


YAYA Seeking Food Justice
Two members of YAYA, Ofelia Sanchez (left) and Yaretzi Perez (center below) went to Atlanta, Georgia for the Uprooted and Rising Conference . Uprooted and Rising is an organization focused on food sovereignty and justice in the south.

They strive to end higher education's support for Big Food corporations and white supremacy in the food system, and direct the energy of our generation towards food sovereignty. Uprooted & Rising aims to create a culture shift through public action, digital organizing, and creative storytelling that uplifts and centers the ideas and experiences of those who have been marginalized by corporate control and white supremacy in our food system. The movement includes students, workers, faculty, food producers, and community members that institutions of higher education are meant to serve.

Real Food Generation (the organization that encompasses both Uprooted & Rising and Real Food Challenge) is also a founding member of the Real Meals Campaign, a groundbreaking, intergenerational coalition to oppose the sweetheart deals between the cafeteria corporations on our campuses and the Big Food corporations that lock out community producers.
NFWM Supports These Boycotts led by our Farm Worker Partners.
We hope you will, too!
National Farm Worker Ministry | 919.807.8707 | nfwm@nfwm.org | nfwm.org