Personal Bags for the Migrant Workers

This is the trunk of my car, a 2007 Ford Focus. Now you know that year had a fairly big trunk.  As you see this trunk is full.  There are 4 large trash bags in there and in each trash bag is 10 bags of personal items for the migrant workers.  That seems like a lot, huh?  But wait.

This is the back seat of my car. There are 3 more trash bags here. In two of them are 10 migrant bags and one holds 5.  That makes a total of 65 bags for the migrant workers. For those of you who do not know what I am talking about, I will tell you. In my fair city, or county we have  many gardens. That is farmers who grow produce for market. We are especially known for our Pueblo Chile, which is a particular breed of chile pepper which is used in our Green Chile. It is not as hot as a Jalepeno, but it is pretty close. Without the produce which is grown out here on the Mesa, a lot of farmers would go broke. Pueblo is also famous for it's Chile Frijole festival which happens every fall downtown on Union Avenue.  If you want to know what heaven is you gotta go to one of these.  I will find out the exact date and blog it so you can be sure and come. It draws people from all over the world, I kid you not!



But, this is about Migrant Bags.  On these farms are a lot of "Migrant Workers" and they are called that because if they were illegal immigrants they would be sent back to Mexico.  But facts are facts, and East of Pueblo there are many "Migrant Workers" who come to work on the farms and without them, the fields would lay fallow. Occasionally there is a crack down and it is then the produce suffers.  The "work force" in town does not want to work under a system that pays them by the bushel to drag a sack through a field in the blazing sun with no job security at all.  My daughter and son in law tried it once. They lasted 5 hours each, 10 hours together. It was time to harvest the peas.  Total take for the day:  $3.30 . That figures out to 33 cents an hour. Courses that does not take into account the trip to the emergency room to clean her eye after Tex tossed a weed over his shoulder and hit her in the eye!

Back on the subject. The workers have no medical, no child care, no nothing, but there are philanthropic people who know where to go to volunteer and help. There is a clinic staffed with 4 doctors who shall remain nameless in a location which shall remain undisclosed. There is a place the people can go get free clothes and once a week a care package consisting of dried beans, corn meal, canned tomatoes and some other dried staples. Several churches get together in the spring and make up "Migrant Bags" which is a cloth bag we sew.  Inside is a towel, wash cloth, a bar of soap, a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a comb. We used to put more stuff in when we did it on our own, but now that we are organized they are more uniform.  Sometimes it takes very little to give a man or woman a little bit of pride.

Our church along with Christ Congregational packed up 65 bags.  Tomorrow I will take these to a church down on Hudson and they will be placed with the ones from several other churches and will be taken to the centers east of town to be dispersed.  The cloth bags are made out of cotton material and are very pretty as well as useful.  If you would be interested in helping us in this endeavor, please leave me a comment and I will get in touch with you.

If you are just wanting to disrupt an operation that has been going on for umpteen years, please just turn your head and look the other way. The Good Lord rewards that also!