I SUPPORT SAF BECAUSE...

I'm the tobacco child...

I'm the middle child, born to the two most courageous, bold, and honest individuals I know. My parents met at an orange field in Florida in 1980 where they both worked as migrant farm workers. My mami had just arrived from her 1,300+ mile journey from Michoacán, Mexico at the age of 16. After meeting my papi, my parents began a family. As migrant farm workers, we--the kids--became like souvenirs from the season and places where they worked. My brother, Felipe, was born in Florida so to me, he's the orange child. I'm the tobacco child from the heart of North Carolina. My sister is also a tobacco child, born a year after me. It wasn't a foreign sight to see farm workers with their kids in the fields alongside our parents. I'm also awestruck every time that I think of how my mami worked in the fields throughout her pregnancies, climbing ladders and making sure that all of her buckets of fruit were full.

(that's my brother at work with my parents in the orange fields)

My family has always worked in the fields...

Sugar cane fields, corn, avocado orchards, tomato fields, peanuts. These are just some of the many things that my family grows in Mexico. My grandfather has always worked the fields, and so have my uncles and cousins. The role for the women in my family has been to care for the livestock, and the gardens at home. As migrant farm workers, one of the things that my parents missed out on was growing and tending their own gardens. My mami is no longer a farm worker, and is now able to finally have a garden of her own where she grows whatever she can in her yard in Durham. She has everything from beautiful rose bushes dedicated to each of her children to eggplant, peppers, and corn.

Not much has changed since the 1980s...

Last year I was talking to my papi about my involvement with SAF. I was explaining some of the campaigns that we were working on. He was horrified to know that farm workers were still getting paid relatively the same as he did 30+ years ago. I can't think of any other industry where workers face increasing dangers and the same wages as the late 1970s. It is simply unacceptable to not properly compensate the people who toil in our fields to feed us and our families and who are exposed to such life-threatening harms as pesticides. It was also shocking for my papi to hear that it wasn't until recently (2006) that farm workers didn't even have the right to a mattress and cover in good condition. To this day, it is up to the growers to determine what a "mattress" is and this, to me, affirms the need for organizations like SAF to continue to work alongside farm workers to bring about justice for ALL workers. Every worker deserves to be treated with dignity.

I LOVE food...

I first became involved with SAF when they were participating in the campaign in support of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to increase wages for tomato workers by 1 penny per pound. We protested outside of a Burger King in Durham. There were some farm workers who came up all the way from Immokalee, Florida to raise awareness in my community about the struggle to get these major corporations to do their part in working with growers that provide farm workers with a decent wage. As a foodie and lover of all deliciousness, I feel that it is my responsibility to make better choices not only of what I eat, but where I buy my food and making sure that I am as least complicit in the subjugation of others as I can in making my choices. I'm not perfect, I fail a lot of times, but with every meal I have an opportunity to live out my values. In the least, I give thanks for those who do the backbreaking work so that I may have my tomatoes year-round, my oranges, etc.

WHY YOU SHOULD SUPPORT SAF

I have committed to fundraising $1000 for this organization that I love by Christmas (12/25/12) and I can't do this alone. I need your help my friends. Please consider making a significant donation, especially as we wrap up our 20th year anniversary!

1. If you love food, and eat food it only makes sense that you support one of the organizations that works everyday to ensure that all farm workers have dignity not only in their work, but in their livelihood.
2. This fun staff is small (7 people!) and mighty and could always use more re$ources to expand and deepen its work. Rest assured that your money would go to one of the most dynamic organizations that does its work with the utmost integrity and truly lives out its mission every single day. I am certain that the staff would work towards fulfilling the mission of SAF even if they didn't get paid (of course we wouldn't let that happen). Your contribution will allow the staff to continue doing groundbreaking work in a very creative, intentional, and engaging way where youth and farm workers work side by side. In 2013, SAF will organize students, continue to outreach to farmworkers, raise consciousness among consumers, and with your donation, continue to provide a living wage & benefits to its staff
3. Your donation will be tax-deductible!
4. We just celebrated our 20 year anniversary and we are not going anywhere! We will continue to create spaces for workers and young people to develop relationships, resist injustice, and reflect on the meaning of their work.
5. The person(s) that donates the most (or gets the most people to donate through my page) will receive my mom's homemade, delicious tamales. Let me tell you, they're LIFE-CHANGING!!! If you live in North Carolina, I may even deliver them while they're still warm ;-)

I am more than happy to share even more reasons of why SAF is worthy of your hard-earned money, so feel free to ask away. Join me in SAF’s fight for working class people, the development of leaders, the belief in the impossible. THANK YOU!

SAF's grassroots fundraising goal is to raise $20,000 through online fundraising and house parties!

SAF uses money raised from individuals to:

• conduct outreach to students and farmworkers,
• provide training, stipends, and scholarships for our interns, students organizers, and youth,
• share documentaries and presentations with the general public, and
• provide a living wage and full benefits to our staff

Thanks to those that have already donated this year through our 20-year anniversary sponsorships. We hope that you will consider giving again to help sustain our work for the next 20 years.

Alexa Dilworth

Andrea Kells

Carolyn Corrie

Cris Rivera

Evan Hughes & Leanne Simon

Irene Godinez

Irving Zavaleta

Lyndsey Beutin

Mercedes Hernandez-Pelletier

Patrick Stawski

Ronald Garcia Fogarty