Basic Needs Ministry - Serving Farmworkers Each spring, thousands of seasonal laborers, mostly from Mexico come to North Carolina to hand-harvest the fruits and vegetables grown here. They live in crowded, substandard conditions, and are exposed to dangerous pesticides and herbicides. They experience heat exhaustion, loneliness, and isolation. They come to North Carolina with small suitcases, backpacks, and sometimes just the clothes on their backs. - Alice Scher, Raleigh's Beth Meyer Synagogue on behalf of the Episcopal Farmworkers Ministry (EFM), Newton Grove; telephone 910-567-6917; FAX 910-567-6854 In 2006, Amber Smith of ME-3, a charity support organization in Raleigh, arranged for Basic Needs to make an initial offer of 1,600 items of clothing to fit the want list of EFM. ME-3 provided transportation for a smaller amount mall value $1,367.50. Basic Needs then started negotiating and pulled 179 new and lightly used screened T-shirts for the first shipment, saving the mall retail of $3,580. In 2004 and 2005, Basic Needs Ministry provided van loads of field safety work clothing - men's long sleeve shirts, slacks, and jeans which were distributed by St. Bernadette's Catholic Church, Fuquay-Varina. |