The Warwick Area Migrant Committee (WAMC) continues its Gratitude Project with all its program participants by collecting the feedback on what our programs have done for the lives of migrant farm workers and their families. This positive feedback continues to pour in from the migrant farm worker community.
We continue our COVID-19 Pandemic Response Program and are still delivering food boxes to migrant workers in need weekly. These much needed groceries help keep impoverished migrant families and farm workers fed during these challenging economic times. You may have read about the recent studies in major media outlets that show how people of color and minorities have been particularly non-proportionally impacted by the ongoing virus epidemic. This is true not only in the United States, but worldwide. Latino and Hispanic communities are among the community populations impacted harder than white peer populations by the virus in both higher community infection rates, as well as, higher mortality rates especially among minority males.
As you might suspect, this has to do with everything from housing situations, economically/environmentally challenged neighborhoods and areas, access to healthcare, lack of disposable income to afford items that lend itself to a better quality of life and health, access to fresh nutritious foods and clean water, lack of disposable leisure time to exercise, and a larger amount of wage earners in each family unit who have a higher amount of jobs proportionally that perform essential services in non-social distancing capable environments.
The WAMC has been a local advocate for migrant farm workers for all these reasons and more for many years far predating the modern awareness of this challenge. These same challenges continue today and have been escalated by this viral pandemic many times fold making this challenge bigger than ever. It is thanks to your continued support that we are able to address these issues and help migrant farm workers, as well as, their families overcome these socio-economic disparities, as well as, continue working towards a better future for their children and their children’s children.
Here is what program participants have told us about what the WAMC Emergency Response program mean to their lives and to their families:
Muy buenas noches..señora kathy.mi respeto para usted..quiero darle las gracias por los alimentos que me han venido a casa..asido de gran bendicion en éstos momentos dificiles..que estamos viviendo..Dios le recompense por su ardua labor..deverdad mil gracias..Dios la bendiga..la aprecio mucho.atentamente Maria.y mis hijos
Good evening, Ms. Kathy. I have great respect for you. I want to thank you for the food that you have brought to my home. It has been a great blessing in these difficult times we are living. Hopefully, God will give you back for you hard work. Thank you very much. God bless you. I appreciate you a lot. Sincerely, Maria and children.
What I learned about this pandemic is that together we can make a difference. In this or in any other situation, together we can overcome what happens and thanks to organizations such as WAMC and The Alamo, we have food to eat. The Mejia Chavez Family, Warwick.
If you wish to help support the WAMC’s various programs including our continued efforts to feed the migrant farm worker community in Southern Orange County New York throughout the COVID-19 pandemic you can make a donation online here. Thank you for your continued support!