Hunger commission hears about migrant workers' plight in Rantoul
RANTOUL — Donna Camp, director of the Wesley Evening Food Pantry in Urbana, said a mother from a migrant farming family recently visited the pantry to get some food.
"She came across a can of beans and she said, 'Now I can make a big dinner for my family.'"
Jose Garza, a farm worker from the Kankakee area, said fighting hunger is a big issue among migrant farm families.
"Farm workers don't have enough food to eat to bring to the table," Garza said. "It breaks my heart."
Camp and Garza were among 14 people who talked about the problem of hunger among Illinois migrant farm workers during a panel discussion Sunday afternoon at the Community Service Center in Rantoul.
Tracy Smith, state director of Feeding Illinois, said Sunday's discussion was the first of eight meetings to be held this year around the state to discuss access to emergency food in rural areas.
Smith said Sunday's event was an opportunity for members of the Illinois Commission to End Hunger to gather first-hand information from people who have been struggling to get food to feed their families as well as both public and private organizations who serve migrant workers and their families.
"This is a fact-finding tour," Smith said. "We're meeting with people in the community to find what their needs are, what some of their challenges are and what things work in their community that we might duplicate in other places."
She said Rantoul was chosen for the event in part because a large number of migrant workers have moved to the area this summer for agricultural jobs.
The commission is a body created by the General Assembly to develop a rolling two-year plan to reduce hunger in the state.
Eloy Salazar, executive director of the Illinois Migrant Council, said the hunger needs of migrant farm workers figure to be greater than ever this summer because funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for migrant farm workers in Illinois was reduced from about $40,000 in 2010 to $12,839 in 2011 due to state budget cuts.
The program, which helps low-income people and families buy food, will likely run out of money by the end of July, Salazar said.
Salazar said the wage the migrant farm workers receive is not much above the minimum wage, and their incomes are interrupted by changes in the weather preventing them from working on farms.
"When we ask the farm workers, they tell us there have been times within the last 12 months when they didn't have money to purchase food," Salazar said. "When there is a lack of food, far more farm workers' children go hungry because there is no money to buy food."
Salazar said many migrant farm workers have to make decisions on whether to spend their money on rent or on food.
When government spending on food programs for migrant workers is reduced, it creates a greater demand on private organizations, such as the Wesley Evening Food Pantry, to provide food.
Camp said the Wesley Evening Food Pantry typically serves between 800 and 1,000 people during a typical month.
But with migrant workers arriving in the county this summer, Camp said Wesley held a special distribution last week for the families migrant farm workers.
She said the pantry gave out groceries to 530 people and delivered another 100 bags of groceries to people who did not have transportation to come to the pantry.
Farm worker Abel Cintora said the need for food is especially crucial when the migrants arrive in the area because they sometimes don't have any money to pay for food until their first paycheck arrives.
"When you work in a camp, you suffer a lot," Cintora said.
Kate Maehr of the Greater Chicago Food Depository said the Commission to End Hunger plans to take the information learned at the Rantoul meeting and the seven other meetings around the state and put together an action plan to significantly reduce hunger in Illinois.
"We will present the action plan to the General Assembly," she said.
State Sen. Mike Frerichs said Sunday's meeting was important because it showed that hunger is not just an issue in urban areas.
"A lot of people view hunger as a problem in large urban areas like the city of Chicago," Frerichs said. "But, it is also affects rural areas as well. The more we talk about this, the more people are able to get ideas to find solutions to the problems."
The Labor Department of the US just allocated 84 million for migrant, seasonal farmworkers. That might be one route to consider.
Hopefully the migrant workers are legally authorized to work in the US, they then do have further resources available to them. Otherwise they should not be working in the US at all and probably are not legally in the US.
Oh well, they probably aren't legal. There are very few requests for legal migrant workers in Illinois.
Illinois how about striving for a legal workforce instead of allowing your farm owners to break the law? Then these workers would be eligible for further help legally.
Students used to do the detasseling, still do in many states.
What is the unemployment rate for students in Illinois this summer?
Students were paid 50 cents an hour to de-tassle corn and won't do that today. That is what the migrant workers are paid today 50 cents an hour or $20.00 a week for 40 hours. NAME just one person you know that is a US Citizen that will work for 50 cents an hour. Just one!
This is a perfect example of how the government taxes Americans in order to make life worse for Americans. These migrant workers CAME HERE for work which displaced local workers. The under-25 population who would work these jobs have a huge unemployment rate. Now the remaining legal workers who pay taxes are being asked to pay to make life better for these MIGRANT workers. Keep it up, and next year they will come back. So, when your son or niece is having trouble finding work, you can tell her that you are subsidizing her competition instead.
News flash: Farmers don't want to hire students! Students need to be trained, don't have good work ethics, have a high turnover rate, and expect to be paid. Migrant workers will take cash and are hard workers because they have to be -- their lives depend on it.
Actually, it's a perfect example of how the same people who complain the most about government -- Republican farmers -- also are the worst when in comes to following, you know, the laws. They get billions in handouts (your taxes at work folks!), they barely work the fields themselves, they buy equipment they don't need in order to get even bigger tax writeoffs, and they create a market for illegal aliens.
No more subsidies for agriculture! Let capitalism reign!
i don't know which farmers you know but i grew up in a farming family and myself and many of my family worked or now work in grain elevators. The majority of farmers i know are using equipment they have had for years and do the farm work themselves. They are in the fields during planting and harvest long beforemost people start their workday and after many people are done for the work day.
It is illegal to pay 50 cents per hour. The minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. When I was a kid (many years ago), detasseling paid $8 per hour, when minimum wage was $3.75 per hour, and tons of kids signed up. So the current equivalent would be ~$15 per hour (sans illegals working for your illegal wage). There are a lot of people who would sweat in the fields for $15 per hour.
So, rather than having kids earn $15 per hour, the government is going to tax people earning $7.75 to provide food assistance for the very illegals who are blocking them from earning a living wage.
I work with migrant workers and you would be surprised to know that the majority are citizens or permanent residents. Many of these workers go from state to state to accept a job offer in agricultural environment. I don't think this is any different from a family who moves from one state to another in order to accept a job offer that would financially benefit their family. Example: Doctor moves from one state to another to work at a different hospital that pays him more. (simple example don't get to carried away with it)
Lets also be a little more realistic not everyone will be able to withstand such a labor intense job, especially those who don't have the necessity to do so..like students and teens. And we all know that teenager do not take anything seriously and what employer likes to babysit their workers? None.. On the other hand many of these migrant workers do not have the education or job training to peruse another career. The majority have grown up working in agriculture and I would consider them more that qualified for that job. Isn't it the purpose to higher someone who is qualified for a certain job??.. No jobs are being taken here..Because I'm sure not even a half of the unemployed students would take that job offer.. or would consider make it their last option.
We have enough working poor as it is. The immigration problem is bankrupting states. The "migrant worker" hunger problem is the same problem that more, and more citizens in America are facing. I have no sympathy for farmers, or businesses that hire migrants. "How does a farmer double his income? He puts up a second mailbox."
i know of none and I work in a grain elevator. many seed companies may employ them for detassling crews but they are sepearate from most famers. Migrant workers seem to be brought up in the summer and most regular farm work ie planting and harvest is done in th espring and fall.
Cherry Orchard Apartments between Rantoul and Thomasboro has been in the news alot lately, housing migrant workers. Public Health Officials were having a hard time finding housing for these individuals, stating that the old Air Force Base hospital was full with over 500 migrant workers staying there. What doesn't compute here? High unemployment everywhere, yet the large seed corporations can only find migrant workers to do the detasseling. These people are making minimum wage and are given a place to stay along with transportation to and from the fields. The Fed. Govt., a while back, tried to reduce the unemployment rate, (although temporary), by creating census jobs and putting people back to work. Why not get some of these folks out in the fresh air doing some honest work. Or is it that the migrant workers might have a better work ethic? Oh, never mind, I just figured it out, they aren't getting public aid.
The majority are hired though larger corporations like pioneer and Monsanto. They are only here for the summer or part of the fall. All of them or at least 90% are detasseling corn. Only a few of these migrant workers stay for the fall to pick pumpkins or to work in any other agricultural environment. It should not matter were or by who they are being hired. The reality and the point of this article is that many of them come with little or no money and are not able to buy food.They have to choose whether to stay homeless or eat.. and that is a position that I would never want to be in or for that matter anyone should come across. Some of you need to watch Harvest of Hope. It is a great documentary about migrant workers.
I understand their plight. They left their country for a better living in another country where even poverty is better. The reality is sadly that the other country, and it's states are broke. The other country cannot even support it's citizens during the current economic times. The other country, and it's states have spent billions on the migrants while allowing businesses to exploit them. Their plight is becoming that other country's working poor's plight. All the while, the businesses are profiting. Some are even receiving subsidies.
The other country and its states have spent billions on the migrants for only one reason, to legalize them and make them dependent on the public aid system. Just like the junkie hooked on drugs, as long as you give me what I need to get by, I will do what you say, in this case, vote to reelect you. Republicans and Democrats are both guilty of allowing this illegal alien situation to grow into a cancer out of control .
And the businesses that are profiting are the businesses that are in the back pocket of the politician. Another argument for term limits.
AMERICA needs to wake up, before its too late.
Give us a break. Loaning money to the automakers -- which, btw, not only saved hundreds of thousands of US jobs, but also more or less paid a profit once you factor in the amount of unemployment dollars we DIDN'T have to pay -- is completely different than giving tax breaks to the companies run by your old buddies.
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