Sales Event #4: Center for Farmworker Families
In alignment with our labor rights social good initiative, we partnered with the Center for Farmworker Families for our fourth sales event of Fall 2019. Based in the central California Coast, the Center for Farmworker Families works binationally to improve circumstances of farmworker families in the United States and Mexico.
Dr. Ann Lopez founded the Center for Farmworker Families after researching the impacts of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on farms and families. Economic policy changes allowed cheap American GMO corn into Mexico, undercutting small subsistence farmers who had previously produced a diverse number of corn strains.
Mexican rural farming communities’ livelihoods were threatened. The risk of crossing the US border for work became one of the only remaining options for work. Today, approximately 75% of California’s farmworkers are undocumented and face constant threat of deportation.
The Center for Farmworker Families works to bring awareness to living conditions of farmworkers in California as well as in their farms of origin in Mexico. Their mission is to promote education, support projects which promote financial and nutritional well-being and independence, examining legal structures around farmwork and engaging in research. Current projects such as providing tutoring, hosting farmworker reality tours, distribution of household needs (including partnerships with the Second Harvest Food Bank, Food Empowerment Project and their Oaxacan Community Shed), and policy advocacy (including affordable housing, pesticide use and working conditions)
EthiCAL Apparel is proud to have partnered with the Center for Farmworker Families and to donate approximately 60% of profits from sales event 4 to their human labor rights improvement efforts. During this sales event, we also launched two items associated with our human labor rights initiatives: our After Hours Tote Bag by Ace Chen and our Faces Shirt by Yuna Lee.
Author: Kathy Tang| Editors: Sarah Roberts & Amy Oh | Graphics: Nada Lamie & James Hua (Marketing)| Team: Social Good
