Welcome to our 2023 SAF Into the Fields interns! This new crop of activists will begin their summer with a five-day virtual orientation to learn about the issues facing farmworkers. They will spend their summer providing health, legal, community organizing, and educational outreach to farmworkers and their families. Check out their placements below and follow... [Read more]
Standing with Farmworkers - Build A New World March
Earlier in March 2023, SAF's Grassroots Organizer, Victoria joined the highly-anticipated Build a New World: March for Farmworker Freedom in Florida. The 5-day march began on March 14 in the small, agricultural town of Pahokee where farmworkers, advocates, organizers, and allies marched more than 45 miles to the billionaire island enclave of Palm Beach. The... [Read more]
Solidaridad and Levante Crossover
Solidaridad Interns and Levante Leadership Institute high school students came together for an interactive, student-centered, artistic workshop in Clinton, NC. Students engaged in a series of activities using their creative skills to express their views on topics of success, leadership, dreams, goals, and farmworker justice. In one activity students had the opportunity to share what the following topics... [Read more]
Levante Students Hear From SAF Alumni
Levante Leadership Institute high school students and their families learned about dental health from SAF alumni Karina Ibarra. Karina, a former Levante participant, is now a senior at UNC majoring in dental hygiene and co-president of the Farmworker Labor and Oral Salud Services Program. Karina and Sylvette Ramos-Diaz provided oral hygiene instruction and discussed the importance... [Read more]
Thank you for a great End of Summer Celebration!
Thank you so much to everyone who joined us for an amazing End of Summer Celebration! We had so much fun celebrating our 30th anniversary / doblequince, the work of students and farmworkers this year, and honoring our outgoing director Melinda Wiggins and welcoming new director Sylvia Zapata Shoemaker! A HUGE thanks to our planning... [Read more]
Celebrating 30 Years of SAF!
For SAF's 30-year anniversary, we've been looking back at our history of bringing students and farmworkers together to work towards social change. Check out a timeline of our 30 years as a nonprofit, plus the work from students in the 1970s and 80s that led to the founding of SAF. Also in celebration of our... [Read more]
What We're Working On
"At first a lot of us had stage fright, but everyone has put on an amazing performance every time. The interns are enjoying themselves and also seeing the joy it brings to farmworkers. It is overall such a fun environment for all of us filled with laughter and good energy." – Maria Juarez, SAF Program... [Read more]
SAF has a new office!
SAF's new offices are at the W.G. Pearson Center in Durham, a space for youth-centered organizations that advocate for equitable community improvements. Update your contact info for SAF: Mail us: P.O. Box 2835 Durham, NC 27715 Visit us: 1200 Spaulding Street Durham, NC 27701 Call us: 919-566-1877 A special thank you to the Center for Documentary Studies... [Read more]
Welcome to SAF's New Executive Director!
We are excited to welcome Sylvia Zapata Shoemaker as SAF's new Executive Director, starting with us on June 1! Sylvia is a third generation Texan and a Winston-Salem State University and La Joya High School graduate. She grew up in Texas' Rio Grande Valley and in Washington's Yakima Valley, where her parents worked in the... [Read more]
Welcome to our 2022 Into the Fields Interns!
This new crop of activists will begin their summer with a five-day orientation to learn about the issues facing farmworkers. They will spend their summer providing health, legal, community organizing, and educational outreach to farmworkers and their families. Check out their placements below and follow their stories from the fields on the Field Notes blog this summer.
SAF Strategic Plan 2022 - 2026
PROCESS Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF) hired Popular Education Consultants (PECI) to facilitate SAF’s 2022-2026 strategic plan process. Beginning in October 2021, PECI conducted in-depth interviews with key stakeholders, reviewed organizational documents, and facilitated three organizational assessment workshops, a report-back meeting with SAF constituents, two sessions with the Executive Committee, two sessions with the staff,... [Read more]
A message from SAF's Executive Director
Hello SAF community, I am writing to share some important news. As SAF celebrates its 30th anniversary, I have decided to transition from my role as Executive Director. I was an intern in the first official Into the Fields program in 1993. After 28 years on staff, I am excited to see what is next for... [Read more]