Service Learning Proposal

Date: 2/23/12

To: Professor Tweed

From: Kira Peterman

Re: WST 4015 Service Learning Proposal

Mission Statement: To engage in local-to-global activism by supporting sustainable relationship-building alongside members of the farm working community, the Youth and Young Adult Network of the National Farm Worker Ministry (YAYA), and La Via Campesina. Through communication and cooperation we will strive to work with our community partners towards the shared aim of agricultural justice. Furthermore, we intend to make connections from the local farmworker community to the global food sustainability movement.

Organizational Structure:

§ Task-based committees

§ Hold members accountable to completion of assigned tasks

§ Maintain effective communication with group members and community partners

§ Committee Chairperson: liaison for committee

§ Meeting facilitator

§ Ensure meetings run smoothly and in a timely matter

§ Hold meetings with Committee Chairpersons

§ Co-liaisons

§ Communicate with community partners

§ Attend YAYA meetings

§ Secretary

§ Record keeping

§ Attendance

§ Ethics Committee

§ Ensure mindful enacting of project

§ Oversee three strike policy

§ Failure to complete task or attend a designated event results in one strike

§ First and second strikes result in voting restrictions

§ Three strikes result in a meeting with the Ethics Committee and Professor Tweed to discuss the member’s role and future participation in the project

Nancy A. Naples states that many feminist NGOs are “transformed from advocates to professionals serving the needs of neoliberal states” (274). By conceptualizing the issues faced by farmworkers as systemically correlated with the adverse effects of globalization, we are modeling ourselves from the Network of Maquila Workers Rights in Central America, as Maquila workers also face oppression in the workforce based on flawed neoliberal policies (273). In this vein, our group is democratically structured and focuses on working with, rather than for our community. Our goal is to prioritize the needs for which farmworkers express a desire for solidarity. In the spirit of feminist NGOs that have come before us, we endeavor to work as professionals within a committed network of organizers, activists, and farmworkers to prioritize an ethic of communal involvement and service. We have chosen a model that stresses personal accountability, which is imperative to success in any cooperative situation.

Our group’s effectiveness shall be assessed through measures of active participation, thoughtful communication, and shared aims of members, which work together to create group cohesion. We will also critically assess our effectiveness by considering how well we work in solidarity with our community partners and demonstrate feminist organizing as exemplified in course materials.

Community Partner/Global Theme:

We propose to address the larger systemic issues of the treatment and unfair conditions of farm workers, focusing on women farm workers. We know that “women produce 70% of the food on earth but they are marginalized and oppressed by neoliberalism and patriarchy” (What Is 1). These systems of oppression often deny peasants and food producers basic and equal access to the food they produce. As the price of food increases and food is scarcer, women become malnourished, “as they eat last after providing for their children and family members” (Desai 21). One possible way of addressing this issue is to “produce food for local consumption” (Desai 24). To lay a foundation for both environmental and production sustainability, it is key that the community eats the food it grows. Local production and consumption can also indirectly address situations of “unsustainable exploitation of workers,” who are denied not only equal access to food but also other resources, such as safe housing and acceptable working conditions (Two Years 1). By establishing themselves as producers of their own food and giving value and recognition to both the unpaid and poorly paid labor that they do, farmworkers can pave the way for larger systemic and institutional change in regard to equal access and fair treatment.

Our local issue relates to lack of resources and tools available to migrant farmworkers. We will take steps toward providing resources and tools to them by working with YAYA on a community garden project, garden tool donation and long-sleeve t-shirt drive. We may engage our global partner, La Via Campesina, in our donation drive. Throughout this project, weekly email with the La Via Campesina will clarify how our progress works in accord with the organization’s needs.

In addition to hopefully having a positive societal effect, our project will also greatly contribute to our learning experience by relating to the course goals and objectives as defined in the course syllabus. We will gain a practical understanding of how women/feminists construct activism both locally and across borders through personally undertaking a project that acts on both local and global levels. Additionally, as has already happened in our discussions on our project, we will find how “unexamined assumptions” (course syllabus) effect how we act in both theory and practice. We will probably encounter this problem again in our project and will have to learn how to deal with it in whole new ways, as well as learn to deal with other issues that come up in our path. Each of the potential conflicts, however, will ultimately give us a better understanding of how feminists must work to accomplish the results they desire.

Project Proposal

We plan to work with YAYA on their various events, specifically during Farmworker Awareness Week.

Through working together actively and effectively as a group, we plan to tackle this service learning project by breaking up into task based groups to complete each aspect of the project. Group members will complete portions of the project according to interest and are encouraged to ask for help, opinions, and constructive criticism from each other. Using our communication tools like social media and email to make decisions and gain feedback gives every member a chance to be included. To include other members of the community, group members will invite participation from members of their organizations and jobs. We realize that educating as many people in the general community to the needs of the farm workers of Fellsmere, can help encourage more volunteering and thus a sustainable relationship with the Farm worker community we are working with. For advertising, members will contact media outlets we through giving fliers and telling those from nearby businesses to donate funds, long sleeve shirts, and gardening tools to the community.

Building on our community partner YAYA’s existing relationship with the farmworker community, we intend to learn the most effective way of utilizing our local resources in order to maximize our outreach. Through this bond, we aspire to grow as individuals, as well as develop building blocks for better understanding of global and transnational feminist issues.

Project Timeline:

1. February 22: Initial contact with Lariza Garzon of YAYA to confirm partnership

2. February 24: Contact Global Partner

3. March 1: In-class presentation by YAYA

1. The historical events that have led to the current oppressive conditions of the agricultural industry

2. Solidarity (sustainable relationship), privilege, power dynamics, etc.

3. March 10: Fundraising Event

4. March 17: Fundraising Event

5. March 31: Participate in YAYA’s Community Garden Project

1. 8 am Depart Orlando from NFWM office

2. 10 am Arrive To Fellsmere

3. 10:15 am Welcome, introductions and instructions

4. 10:45 am Gardening begins!

5. 1:00 pm Lunch (vegetarian options available)/ short soccer game

6. 2:00 pm Back to gardening!

7. 4:30 pm Debrief

8. 5:15 pm Dinner

9. 6:00 pm Depart Fellsmere

10. 8:00 pm Arrive to Orlando at NFWM Office

11. Date TBD: Debriefing meeting

Works Cited

Desai, Manisha. "Transnational Solidarity: Women's Agency, Structural Adjustment, and Globalization." Women's Activism and Globalization: Linking Local Struggles and Transnational Politics. By Nancy A. Naples and Manisha Desai. New York: Routledge, 2002. 15-33. Print.

Naples, Nancy A. "The Challenges and Possibilities of Transnational Feminist Praxis." Women's Activism and Globalization: Linking Local Struggles and Transnational Politics. By Nancy A. Naples and Manisha Desai. New York: Routledge, 2002. 267-81. Print.

“Two Years After the Events…” La Via Campesina: International Peasant’s Movement. La Via Campesina International Peasant’s Voice. 12 January 2012. Web. 23 February 2012.

“What is La Via Campesina?” La Via Campesina: International Peasant’s Movement. La Via Campesina International Peasant’s Voice. 9 February 2011. Web. 23 February 2012.

Word Count: 1358