Church warden Karen Zurheide of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in New London shares this update about a program they are passionate about at their church:
"Did you know that practically all dairy farms of substantial size in the northeast employ migrant workers, mostly from Mexico? These men and women live where they work, and due to their mostly undocumented immigration status, they remain in the shadows, largely invisible to the rest of us who consume the products of their labor. What’s more, in a dirty, dangerous, and demanding environment, they are without the rights and protections afforded other workers.
Last month, for the third time, representatives of Burlington, Vermont-based Migrant Justice made a community presentation at St. Andrew’s in New London on their Milk With Dignity worker-led labor/housing rights program. The first such event was in early March of 2020, just barely before the official start of the pandemic. That interruption called a halt to the first Milk With Dignity tour, which had stops scheduled throughout New England and upstate New York.
Fast forward to 2022, when St. Andrew’s designated the Milk With Dignity program as a recipient of one of its Last Sunday outreach offerings. For a month, parishioners learned about migrant dairy farm workers in our region, including their typically sub-par working and living conditions, and the Milk With Dignity program whose goal is to assure the humane treatment of dairy workers by engaging corporations at the top of the supply chain.
A farm worker from Mexico brought the sermons one Sunday in Spanish, interpreted by a Migrant Justice staffer. Parishioners who were especially interested contributed to Migrant Justice, with all donations matched by an ongoing pot of money funded by anonymous donors, resulting in a substantial gift. The evening before their Sunday with St. Andrew’s parish saw the second community presentation by Migrant Justice guests.
Recently Migrant Justice has shared more than fifty presentations in New England and upstate New York, at universities, community organizations, and faith congregations, including at St. Andrew’s.
Having first secured the participation of Ben & Jerry’s—which covers about 20% of Vermont dairy farms in the Milk With Dignity program—the Migrant Justice effort for three years now has been to persuade Hannaford corporation (headquartered in Maine, owned by Dutch company Ahold Delhaize) to sign on to the program.
Countless peaceful “actions” continue to be carried out at Hannaford stores, including in New London, at which customers and others spread the word about the need and the solution, making their wishes known for Hannaford to join Milk With Dignity, this is in addition to the thousands of postcards, letters and phone calls that have made that plea to Hannaford’s CEO.
To learn more, visit migrantjustice.net. See this Harvard Business Review piece from December 2022, and note this statement from the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont at the start of the Migrant Justice campaign to engage with Hannaford in 2019.”