¡Hola Family & Friends!

This month brings us Thanksgiving in America.  Family and food, fun and food, freedom and food.  But, from whence this food?  Squash grown in California and harvested by Maria from Paracho, Michoacán, Mexico.  A turkey raised in Minnesota and processed by Sylvia from Huehuetenango, Guatemala.  Onions planted in Georgia and clipped by Jaime from Ixmiquilpan, Hidalgo, Mexico.  Our annual celebration of plenty is made possible by people working far from their families, with little access to the fun side of the American dream, and often living with more fear than freedom.

For over two decades I have worked as an educator and advocate for our nation's migrant farm workers and during that time I have collaborated with a number of different local and national organizations seeking to improve the lives of the people who feed us.  However, I generally have never gotten involved in fundraising for any of these groups.  This week though, I am asking that you consider making a donation to a non-profit organization that has a 20-year track record of leveraging limited resources to maximum positive effect: Student Action with Farmworkers.  Why SAF?  When I first worked as a migrant health outreach coordinator at Prospect Hill Clinic in North Carolina in the early 1990s, some of the most dedicated help I had was from UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University student volunteers whose efforts laid the foundation for SAF.

I would like to invite you to poke around the SAF website  http://saf-unite.org/content/about-us  to learn about what this organization has accomplished during the past two decades on a shoe-string budget.  I view the SAF as comparable to the Peace Corps – a structured, and purpose-driven effort to cultivate substantive contact and collaboration between people who might otherwise never meet: the educated elite who will one day run our nation, and the poorest of the poor on whose labor we all depend.  Moreover, SAF has increasingly recruited children of migrant farmworkers into their fold.  I know from my connections with SAF that the young people who participate are transformed by the experience and go on to serve migrants and/or other communities in multiple ways in their professional and personal lives. 

Therefore, please consider supporting the SAF fundraising drive (even a little bit will help) so that they can continue to work for greater respect and justice for farmworkers – the people who are in the fields and packing sheds right now harvesting and preparing the food you will enjoy a couple Thursdays from now.  My goal is to raise a minimum of $1000 to support SAF's work bringing students and farmworkers together to learn about each other’s lives, share resources and skills, improve conditions for farmworkers, and build diverse coalitions working for social change.  My campaign begins Monday, November 10 and ends Friday, November 14. Please consider making a $25 to $50 tax-deductible contribution to support SAF.  (If you can afford more, of course it is more than welcome.)

Click here to Donate Now!

Sincerely,

Scott