National Farm Worker Ministry an interfaith organization supporting farm workers as they organize for justice member organizations include nearly 40 national, state and local religious bodies
They shall not plant and another eat; - Isaiah 65:21
When we pray and act with them, we are changed also.
- Gen Cassani, SSND
NFWM Board
Farm Worker Conditions
The food that overflows our market shelves and fills our tables is harvested by men, women, and children who often cannot satisfy their own hunger - Cesar Chavez
Many thanks to David Oddo, who researched and wrote the following pages on farm worker conditions.
Photo by Ken Light
There are an estimated 900,000 migrant students. About 50% finish high school. ("Changing School With the Season," Christian Science Monitor. February 15, 2005)
In order to help support their families, many farm worker children drop out of school and work alongside their parents in the field. The average migrant child may attend three different schools during one academic year. For many migrant children, it takes roughly three years to advance one grade level. ("United States Farm worker Fact Sheet." Student Action With Farm Workers. Durham, North Carolina.)
By the time they reach first grade, fifty percent of migrant children will have fallen below national scholastic averages. The majority of farm worker children will never graduate from high school. (Daniel Rothenberg, With These Hands: The Hidden World of Migrant Farmworkers Today.)
