ANNAPOLIS (Maryland) CAPITAL

March 5, 2008

By ELISABETH HULETTE, Staff Writer

Emma Rathmann, 12, a student at the Key School in Hillsmere, said she never really thought about the poor working conditions endured by migrant workers who pick the fruits and vegetables she eats - until her seventh-grade class started studying them.

 Yesterday, she got to meet someone from that world when Gerardo Reyes-Chavez, 30, a former migrant worker who is trying to end those abuses, spoke to her class.

"I didn't know about the conditions, who's picking my food," Emma said. "It really opened my eyes to the things that happened."

The lesson is intended to teach them to be more aware of the world, said Dave Magnus, head of Key's middle school.

"It is incumbent upon educators to connect our students to human rights issues," he said. "We try to push kids outside their bubble. It's part of their moral education."

Mr. Reyes-Chavez, who first became a farm worker in Mexico at age 11, told students about how he lived when he was picking tomatoes in Immokalee, Fla., The workers there sleep in crowded trailers and do the backbreaking work for 10-14 hours per day.

They get no health benefits and earn just 40 to 45 cents for each 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick, he said. Just to earn minimum wage, they have to pick 150 buckets of tomatoes every day.

Sometimes they're beaten, and sometimes they're held on farms as slaves, said Meghan Cohorst, a coordinator for the Student/Farmworker Alliance who translated for Mr. Reyes-Chavez. The alliance is a national network of student activists working with Mr. Reyes-Chavez's Florida-based organization, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, to fight for fair wages and working conditions for migrant farm workers.

Mr. Reyes-Chavez is a staff member at Immokalee Workers.

The coalition has prosecuted six cases of slavery over the past decade, freeing more than 1,000 workers. Now, it wants Burger King, a major buyer of the tomatoes, to pay its workers a penny more per pound for the tomatoes they pick.

That would be the first time the price has changed since 1978, Mr. Reyes-Chavez told Key's seventh-graders.

During his presentation, students admitted they knew the slogans and jingles of fast food companies like McDonald's and Burger King, but did not know where the food comes from or about how the companies treat their workers.

"When these companies realize their consumers are waking up to the reality behind their campaigns, they're going to have to change," Mr. Reyes-Chavez said in Spanish.

The seventh-graders also have been reading "The Circuit," Francisco Jimenez's autobiography about the abusive conditions suffered by farm workers in the 1940s. Reid Buckley, a Key school parent, arranged for Mr. Reyes-Chavez's visit when she learned that many of the abuses detailed in the book still exist.

"I was struck that things have not only changed, they've gotten worse," Ms. Buckley said. She arranged for the visit through a college friend who works for the Student/Farmworker Alliance.

It's all made an impression on how the students think of undocumented workers, Emma said.

"They're the base of our society," she said. "We need them, and they deserve to be treated well because our produce is resting on their shoulders."

Emma Cassat, 13, said hearing Mr. Reyes-Chavez was a call to action.

"It's in this country, and our country in some places is not a good place to live," she said. "It definitely made me think I need to help with this."

Hannah Travers, 12, who's in her first year at Key, agreed.

"I'm really glad I'm getting this education," she said. "If I didn't have the opportunity to come here, I wouldn't know what I know now, and I might not have a chance to make a difference."