Support Farmworkers – Donate a Local Food Basket this Holiday Season

Farm work is one of the most dangerous occupations and worst paying jobs in the country.

Farmworkers endure impoverished living conditions, intensive physical labor, chronic pesticide exposure, racial discrimination and exploitation, deplorable wages with little or no benefits, and long working days in hazardous working conditions.  They generally live in labor camps or substandard housing.  Despite these hardships, farmworker families somehow retain a spirit of community, faith, and hope – surviving on pride and determination.

Did You Know?

• Farmworkers suffer the highest rate of chemical-related illness of any occupational group

• Agriculture is consistently ranked among the five most hazardous occupations by the U.S. Department of Labor.

• In a single day’s labor during peak season, a typical farmworker handpicks, while leaning from a ladder, three and a half tons of oranges, or stoops to pick about 3,000 pounds of tomatoes

• In 2000, the median income for migrant and seasonal workers was $6,250, compared to $42,000 for U.S. workers overall

• Nearly three-quarters of U.S. farmworkers earn less than $10,000 per year and three out of five farmworker families have incomes below the poverty level

This year, farmworker families are suffering even greater hardships. Already living at the poverty level, many of them have been hard hit by the economic crisis – less work days in the fields and ferneries, reduced crop production, rising cost of food and housing – and many live in fear and intimidation because of racial profiling by law enforcement officials in their communities and by the reality of family members who have been deported, leaving single parents struggling alone.

At the Homegrown Co-op, we are grateful to know that our local farmers operate by good labor practices, but acknowledge that not all those who labor in our fields are so lucky. So this holiday season, we encourage you to think of those who work so hard to put food on your table, by helping them put good nutritious food on their family’s table this holiday.

Homegrown Co-op has teamed up with the Florida Farmworker Association as part of its Holiday Basket campaign. Community members may purchase a basket of locally grown produce from Homegrown Co-op, to be shared with families of farmworkers who are most in need of a nourishing meal this holiday season.

At Thanksgiving and Christmas, millions around the country sit down to dinner and give thanks for the food they are about to it. How many of us think about the hands that harvested that food, that made it possible for us to have an abundance of food to eat?

This year, support Florida Farmworkers with a gift of fresh food that is desparately needed. Visit the Homegrown Marketplace and click on BASKETS/GIFTS to reserve your produce basket as a gift to be delivered directly to a farmworker family in need. Thank you so much for your support.