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 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]

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]

"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'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]

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]

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.

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]

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]

Our theme for National Farmworker Awareness Week this year is Todos Unidos / Everyone Together. For each day of the week of action, we'll be highlighting well-known and lesser-known activists in the history of the farmworker movement. Learn about these important activists and the issues they worked on below and make sure to share the... [Read more]

To celebrate Black History Month this year, we hosted "Grown with Black Hands: A Panel Discussion with Former Black Sharecroppers and Tenant Farmers." We had a powerful, moving discussion with former sharecroppers and tenant farmers and current Black farmers in NC. A huge thank you to our panelists, to Faithfull Farms for beautifully hosting us... [Read more]

Former SAF Levante youth member and current Campbell University student Maria Celeste Carbajal recorded this video about her role as a farmworker youth and advocate. Maria was a co-investigator for the Child Labor Study project between SAF and Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Click below to watch the video, which is being screened at the... [Read more]