St. Petersburg Times

February 4, 2005

Center aids migrant workers

The new Head Start site offers free services, such as day care, within the farm workers' camp.

By Eddy Ramirez

There were times when Maria Marcos felt her whole week's pay was going to the babysitter.

A strawberry picker at JayMar Farms, Marcos said the $8 a day she paid a neighborhood woman to look after her 2-year-old son, Felipe, was eating away at the family's savings.

Her hired hand, an unlicensed sitter, also watched over four other children in an apartment that Marcos said was too crammed for the children to roam around freely and play.

"It was very tough for us," Marcos said. "But we didn't have a choice."

So when Marcos heard that the Redlands Christian Migrant Association was opening a Head Start center across the street from her house, she immediately enrolled her son.

Today, Felipe and 77 other children of migrant workers receive free care and schooling at the new 6,800-square-foot Balm Migrant Head Start Center. Children as young as 6 weeks old are fed, cared for and supervised by trained workers, including former migrant workers who have earned high school diplomas. Children between the ages of 3 and 5 participate in activities that are designed to prepare them for school. For school-age children up to age 12, the center is like a Boys & Girls Club, where they can play sports and do homework.

The facility, which opened Jan. 5, is the first Hillsborough Head Start center built inside a farm worker camp and partially financed by growers, according to Barbara Mainster, the executive director of RCMA.

The state and federally funded association runs 69 other Head Start centers throughout the state; the Balm facility is the 18th in Hillsborough.

The center, at 14710 Sweet Charlie Circle off County Road 672, sits on land set aside by JayMar Farms. Owners Marvin Brown and Jay Sizemore originally planned to build a child day care center as part of a 72-unit farm worker housing complex. But delays in securing permits from the county pushed back construction on the site.

In 2001, the workers of JayMar Farms moved into new apartments but still had to scramble to find affordable day care for their children. Some children were enrolled in other Wimauma area RCMA centers, but many wound up in the hands of unlicensed babysitters, including some who were overcharging parents.

"I'm just relieved that we were finally able to open the center," said Brown, who also owns farms in Plant City and Dover. "I'm thrilled, actually."

"He jumped through amazing hoops to get this approved," Mainster said of Brown.

The Balm center, which cost $700,000 to build, will serve 105 children once it is filled to capacity.

Infants sleep in new cribs. In another room, trained staff members watch over preschoolers who color and play games.

Outside, Hugo Ventura, 12, kicked around a soccer ball with other children who attend Lithia-Pinecrest Elementary. "I like it here," Hugo said. "We can play and do our homework. And the center has new computers we can use."

Additionally, the center features a spacious community room where the farm's residents hold monthly meetings and celebrate birthday parties.

Donna Sizemore, wife of owner Jay Sizemore, recognizes that providing affordable housing and day care are critical to the success of their farming business.

"After all," she said, "in the agriculture business, our workforce is our lifeline."