Fruitbelt press

FRUITBELT FARMWORKER CHRISTIAN MINISTRY

1370 WAGGONERS GAP RD, CARLISLE, PA 17013

(717)701-8633fruitbelt-farmworkers.org

In memory of bill knarr

A gift was made to Fruitbelt Farmworker Christian Ministry in memory of Bill Knarr, by his beloved wife Laverne. We met Bill through our association with Chambersburg Central Presbyterian Church. Bill was always ready to help the migrant farm workers in any manner possible, going out of his way to give of his time and resources. We miss Bill and sincerely appreciate his wife’s gift in memory of him.

FRIEND - A – CAMP

Now is the time for churches to be making plans for ministering to the farm workers through the Friend – a – Camp program. There are many camps still available, especially in Adams County. A simple visit by a few members of your church can have a real impact on these workers who are so far from their families. Interpreters are provided as needed. Please call us if you are not already involved. You will be blessed.

HEALTH KITS, etc.

Each spring the ladies ofthe Philadelphia Conference Branch of AME Women’s Ministries Services bring a bounty of Health Kits to their annual meeting for us to distribute to the migrant workers. This year the total was 785. Of course, we can still usemore if your group is working on this as a project. We also need gently used men’s sweatshirts and jackets, as well as blankets. Call the office to make arrangements for delivery or pick up.

VEHICLE

Early last fall, the “mission van” made its last visit to a migrant camp. When Rod took it for its annual check-up, the inspector pronounced it “hopeless.” Rod has an old pick-up truck that he has been using since then to make visits, but it is well past its prime. If anyone knows of a suitable van or pick-up that someone might wish to donate to the ministry, please let us know.

MONEY MATTERS

FFCM continues to struggle financially. As of May 30, 2016, we had received a total income of $17,770.27 and have had $24,501.71 in expenses. Please ask God if He wants you to be a part of the solution to this deficit. Thank you.

ANNUAL BANQUET AND SILENT AUCTION

Income from the banquet and auction this year totaled $2,043.08. Since attendance was down, we have decided to hold the event a bit earlier next year, with March 25, 2017, as the tentative date. Those who came this year enjoyed the singing and playing of Sharon Kaya, and all were informed by the presentation by Allison Baugher. As always, the auction was fun and fellowship was sweet.

This year at our Annual Banquet, people were so touched by the words of our special speaker, AlliBaugher, that we asked her to write a condensed version of her talk to include in this newsletter. Please read the following:

Phil Baugher is the President and co-owner of Adams County Nursery in Aspers, PA. He has over 40 years in the agriculture industry, working for the family business predominantly in sales, marketing and product development. He has served in organizations such as the International Fruit Tree Association as well as the State Horticultural Association of Pennsylvania and was the 2007 PA Outstanding Grower of the Year.

Phil’s daughter, Alli, studied Religion and Spanish in college, and studied abroad in Mexico and Central America with the plan of pursuing migrant education. After college she joined Teach for America and taught high school Spanish in DC public schools for 7 years. She and her husband recently moved back to Adams County where she joined the fifth generation of Adams County Nursery, as Human Resources Manager.

The following is an abbreviated version of a presentation given at the annual Fruitbelt Farmworker Ministry banquet.

“Welcoming the Stranger”

PHIL: I have been involved in agriculture my entire life and have memories of working on the farm with employees from all walks of life. I remember my father talking about the homeless during the Great Depression, moving around to help with harvest and sleeping in tent villages along the train tracks, as well as men from the south who made their way north through the season, harvesting everything from citrus to berries to apples. Over the years my family and I have developed a great deal of respect for the migrant farmworker.

If we look at the history of our country, most families were farm families until the early 1900s. Over 50% of Americans lived on small farms where most of the work was done by the family members. Farms comprised typically less than 50 acres and produced most of what was needed to sustain the family. That all began to change at the beginning of the industrial era. More and more families left the farms to work in factories and gradually farms began to increase in size and to transition from producing lots of crops to specializing in specific commodities like dairy, vegetable, row crops, or tree fruits.

During the industrial revolution, factories sprung up, coal mines were opened, railroads were built and the economy flourished. This was a period in our history when we as Americans truly did “welcome the stranger.” Families from all over the world came to experience this new prosperity and leave behind poverty and abuse. The Statue of Liberty quote; “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” speaks to the sense of that “welcoming the stranger” attitude that existed then. Immigrants came by the masses and entered this country, many through Ellis Island, and over time assimilated into society and drove our economy in ways we can only imagine. They worked in the mines, in the factories, on the railroads and on the farms. They also brought with them Irish pubs, Italian meat markets, Chinatowns and many other cultural contributions that developed the diversity we have grown to call the “American-way”.

So my question is what makes the Latino immigrant population any different? Quite honestly, as a grower, I am so tired of the political rhetoric about “sending them all home”. That we are letting in criminals, drug dealers, people who are a drain on our resources. Latino immigrants, whether documented or undocumented, make a tremendous contribution to our economy. They come here to take jobs that most in our society are not willing to do. They leave their homes and families in an effort to provide for them. And we have made it so difficult and expensive for them to get here that many opt to stay rather than risk the border crossing another time.

In a recent trip to Mexico, Pope Francis suggested that the Christian community should be focused on building bridges, not walls. I wish the community at large could get past discrimination and begin to embrace the growing Latino community. I do see some positive changes occurring, like many of the banks in the area now have Spanish speaking clerks. Many grocery stores have employees who speak Spanish. Hospitals now provide interpreters for patients. Gettysburg borough now has an annual event called “Salsa on the Square.” These are positive changes that begin to welcome the stranger. But there is so much more we can do. What does it really mean for us to be building bridges?

ALLI: In the short time that I have been back in the business, I have interviewed a number of employees about what they like most about working for our farm and in agriculture in general, and their response is always that our group of employees feels like a family. And I know this isn’t unique to our farm. My father mentioned the fact that more and more workers from Mexico and Central America who in the past traveled home after harvest are now staying year-round, because the risk of going home is too great. This has created a situation where the majority of the mostly young

men who take the risk of coming to this country with the purpose of providing for their families, have now gone years and years without seeing their families. They have created new families and support systems among the men and working communities they have joined here in the U.S. They play on soccer teams together, they live together, they cook meals together, and they stick up for each other and support one another, sometimes financially. Right now, of course I am speaking of our year-round employees, and an attempt at this sort of family structure takes place among our migrant employees as well; but there is a greater challenge because of the unstable nature of their work and lifestyle. The needs of migrant farmworkers are very different from the needs of the employees who have come to now live here permanently.

As someone who lived with a family in Mexico during my semester abroad and stayed with families throughout Central and South America during my travels, I have had the opportunity to observe the significance of the family unit in Latin American culture. The matriarch of the home where I lived in Mexico had taken in her two adult siblings, one of whom was recently divorced and one who had lost their job. She had a daughter of her own and also cared for her mother who had lived with her ever since her father died. They even occasionally took in a distant cousin who just couldn’t seem to stay out of trouble. In American culture, some might perceive this woman as weak. “Tell them they’re adults and can take care of themselves! You have your own daughter’s mouth to feed.” But it wasn’t a burden for her- this sort of unity and support is at the core of Latin American culture. Family, whether traditional or created out of circumstance, is more important than anything else.

PHIL AND ALLI: So how do we build bridges for seasonal migrant farmworkers? From our experience speaking with employees, one of the most-needed services we can help to provide is to re-connect employees to a sense of community by providing spaces, social activities and work environments that nurture the work families they have created. Things like “Salsa on the Square” and other cultural events are wonderful for our year-round permanent Hispanic community that have put down roots here, but many migrant workers don’t have access to transportation beyond the farm. By providing housing with kitchens where there are large family tables, or picnic tables outside, speakers they can listen to music on, yards where they can play soccer, and gardens where they can grow simple things like chilies and tomatoes together as they are accustomed to doing in their own country- by creating these spaces, we provide opportunities to act and feel like a family, if only for the few months they are here. When these basic human needs don’t exist, problems like alcoholism, drug abuse, loneliness, and desperation are the result. And this cycle is not easily broken. Many migrant farmworkers have been in this cycle for so long that they have learned to not trust anyone, including their employer, even when that employer is trying to do the right thing. And the disconnectedness that results from this lack of trust can be incredibly damaging because the “every man for himself” mentality is so counter to Latin American culture.

This is where organizations like Fruitbelt Farmworker Ministries have great potential for building bridges. Christian faith is at the center of many Latin American households - it’s another thing that feels like home, but feels so far away when immersed in this ever-changing, unpredictable, way of life. Providing physical things that migrant farmworkers need, like new clothes, blankets, hygiene kits or sturdy boots, is a wonderful thing to do, and I know very much appreciated. I truly believe, however, that the intangible gifts like time spent and meals shared can have the greatest impact because they make these men and women feel human and valued not as workers but as people, and children of God. I know Rod spends much of his ministry sitting and talking and getting to know the men and women he serves, and I admire him for that. And the friend-a-camp program brings church communities out to the locations that workers call home during their time here.

I remember a sermon that was once spoken at my church where I worshipped in DC, where the pastor said, “Jesus’ message to welcome the outcast does not mean putting a blurb in the front of each of our Sunday bulletins that says we welcome all walks of life. It means when the homeless woman timidly enters the back of the church with disheveled hair, torn clothes, and smelling like she hasn’t bathed in over a month, that you greet her not with fear or judgement, or by handing her the flyer about the church’s weekly soup kitchen and then walking back to your pew feeling like you’ve done your part, but rather by welcoming her with a smile and inviting her to sit beside you. It means sacrificing a little bit of your own comfort to provide comfort to the estranged.” In effect, “welcoming the stranger,” means making the stranger feel less strange. It means making them feel at home in a foreign place.

“The stranger that dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself…” Leviticus 19:34

“…inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren you did it unto Me.” Matthew 25:40

Reaping the harvest

Recently, the trailer in which a farmworker family of six was living burned, and they lost everything. Another farmworker family took them in and called us to seek help for them. Thanks to the Food Boxes that some churches had given us, we were able to provide enough food for both families. It turns out that the wife of the host family remembers us having helped her parents when she was a child. FFCM has come full circle, and the one who was helped as a child has now opened her heart and her home to this needy family. Even more importantly, Jesus has His proper place in the hearts and lives of the Porras family.

Camp visitation

Though the fruit is tiny now, harvest will arrive before we’re ready. All year long, Rod enjoys visiting in the camps where there are seasonal workers. He sometimes arrives just in time for a yummy supper. Once the apples are ready to pick, life gets really busy, and visits to camps can seem a bit hurried as he tries to see as many workers as possible during the short picking season. Give us a call if you would like to join him on his rounds some evening. It is educational, enlightening, and enjoyable.

Mission website

Check out Fruitbelt Farmworker Christian Ministry’s website at fruitbelt-farmworker.org. On-line donations can be made at youcaring.com/fruitbelt-farmworker-christian-ministry-542769.

Be on the lookout for the Fruit box fundraiser brochure

Just a note to advise you that the next newsletter will probably include the fruitbox brochure.