Lake Nona High School Students Experience the Quilt, Donate Food for Farmworkers

Thanks to school teacher, Nicolle Boujaber-Diederichs, author Dale Slongwhite and FWAF staff were invited to Teach-In Day at Lake Nona High School in Orlando, Florida.  It happened to coincide with International Food Worker Week and was an opportunity to raise awareness not only about farmworkers, but about workers all along the food chain.  The Food Chain Workers Alliance of which the Farmworker Association of Florida is a member, helps coordinate IFWW each year around Thanksgiving, a time to think about food and the hands that feed us all.  

The Blue Quilt was on display as Dale and Jeannie showed the “Out of the Muck” video  Geraldean and the Lake Apopka farmworkers, and Dale read passages from her book Fed Up: The High Costs of CheapFood quoting farmworkers’ own stories about what life was like working in the fields.  Speaking to seven periods of AP history and geography classes at the school, the presenters reached close to 250 students who learned about farmworkers, pesticides, health impacts and social and environmental justice. 

A great bonus was the donations of food and money that the students collected for the FWAF annual Thanksgiving food and turkey drive and give-away to needy African American, Haitian and Hispanic community members in the Apopka area.

Thanks, Ms. Boujaber-Diederichs and thanks to all your students.

Remember, at Thanksgiving and always:  Got Food?  Thank a Farmworker.