Local Jamaicans Supporting Jamaican Migrant Workers in Massachusetts

Local Jamaicans take direct action to support migrant apple pickers in Massachusetts.

For more than a decade members of the Jamaican Associates Inc. gather at an apple ochard in Harvard, Massachusetts to share in a home cooked meal with apple pickers brought to Massachusetts to work the fields picking the crops of Massachusetts' farmers. This October 11, 2008 at 4:00 pm the Jamaican Associates members will meet at Carlson Orchards 115 Oak Hill Road, Harvard, MA to prepare an on site meal for the workers as they return to their temporary housing barracks after a long day picking apples. This annual event allows members a truly unique perspective to see and feel first hand how helpful a home cooked meal can be for a worker struggling with the challenges of traveling hunreds of miles from home in order to find work in a foreign country to support a family they must leave behind to pick apples on farms in Massachusetts.