Cesar Chavez Day Field Trip with the University of Central Florida

 On March 31st, FWAF celebrated Cesar Chavez Day with students from the University of Central Florida! here's a look into how we spent the day.

The students arrived at our Apopka office at about 10AM. We started to morning off with a brief orientation about what they could expect for the day. We touched on things like pesticide exposure, lack of workplace protections, and other injustices that farmworkers face daily. After this, we originally planned to do some work alongside farmworkers at a local nursery. However, after students learned about the risks of pesticide exposure, everyone decided that a change of plans was most appropriate. Instead, we went on a "mini" Lake Apopka Toxic Tour. Unfortunately, most of the stops of the original tour are no longer visit-able. These sites, former Lake Apopka farmlands, have largely been developed over. There is simply nothing left to see. What's left is the lake itself, some newer nurseries, landfills, a pesticide packaging facility, and a medical waste incinerator. All of these stops in in or near residential areas- a prime example of the environmental racism in Apopka that still prevails. 

After the the morning activities, the group bussed back to the FWAF office to eat lunch, discuss the morning events, and watch one of our videos, Los Naranjeros, about the community of migrant farmworkers in Florida. From there, we moved to our community garden! This garden is our community's slice of victory in agroecology, food justice, and food sovereignty. The students worked together to build a new patch of raised beds in the garden, weed out beds, and clean up our greenhouse. After this, we visited Ms. Linda Lee to hear her story. Ms. Linda Lee was a farmworker for several decades, and a large portion of this time was spent on Lake Apopka farms, where she was experienced pesticide exposure, racism, and other hardships of farmworker life. She also showed us some of her famous quilt pieces that depict her memories and experiences as a farmworker, along with some new projects of hers- dolls!

We closed out the day back at the office for reflections, final questions, and a stance in solidarity for farmworkers. Farmworkers feed us all; we must work as a community to better protect and honor them as essential workers. 

by Finn Spencer