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UID:Indybay-18794482
SEQUENCE:18927991
CREATED:20161206T214800Z
DESCRIPTION:Human rights advocates from around the state will be assembling in front of 
 the California Department of Housing & Human Development (HCD) in 
 Sacramento at 12:30 pm on Friday, December 9—the day before Human Rights 
 Day—to protest the HCD’s regulation forcing farm workers to leave the 
 labor camps and move at least 50 miles away. California is the only State 
 in the nation that has not created an exception to this historic 
 inequality. \n \nFor years, The Center for Farmworker Families, Food 
 Empowerment Project, and other farm worker advocates have been asking the 
 State of California to remove or limit the use of its so-called 50-mile 
 regulation, which requires migrant farm workers who reside in 
 California’s subsidized migrant camps to leave these camps each year by 
 the end of November and move at least 50 miles away, if they want to return 
 the following year. This arbitrary and oppressive regulation means that the 
 education of their children is interrupted, as they must enroll in at least 
 two schools a year. \n \n“Getting rid of the 50-mile rule will make it so 
 that kids can stay in the same school once the season ends,” said 
 “Isabel,” a daughter of farm workers. “Kids won’t have to learn one 
 thing and be tested on another once they come back.” Now enrolled in 
 college, Isabel said that her grades suffered when she was younger and she 
 and her family had to relocate to a new area for five months. “This made 
 me start thinking I was stupid,” she said. “But looking back now, it 
 wasn’t that I was stupid; it was just the circumstances. I wasn’t 
 taught what I was being tested on. It’s normal to fail in a system 
 that’s designed for people who are here for the full year.”\n \n“We 
 are asking Governor Brown to instruct HCD to use its discretion to allow 
 farm workers who would like to stay in the area, so their children can 
 finish the school year, to do so and therefore not impede the education of 
 their children,” said lauren Ornelas, executive director of Food 
 Empowerment Project. “We know that in the past, the agency has used its 
 discretion—and humanity—to treat the farm workers as individuals and 
 allowed them to stay in the housing center when it has been important for 
 their health. Education is a human right and one that should be afforded to 
 the children of farm workers.”\n \nEvent Details:\n \nCalifornia 
 Department of Housing & Community Development\n2020 W El Camino Ave, 
 Sacramento, California 95833\n12:30 to 1:30 pm\n \nFor more information 
 about the protest, please visit 
 https://www.facebook.com/events/210368452701835/\n \nAbout the 50-Mile 
 Regulation\n\nMigrant farm workers who reside in California’s subsidized 
 migrant camps can remain in the camps only from May 1 of a given year to 
 the end of November. A state regulation (Office of Migrant Services, Title 
 25 Housing and Community Development Programs, p 701.102) requires they 
 must move at least 50 miles from the camp in order to reside at the camp 
 the following year. Because the farm workers are forced to migrate, their 
 children’s education is seriously interrupted, since they arrive at the 
 camps at the end of the school year in May and are required to vacate their 
 apartments two months into the following school year in November.\n \nFood 
 Empowerment Project  is working with The Center for Farmworker Families to 
 change the state regulation so that migrant farm workers have the option of 
 finding housing and remaining in the school district for the duration of 
 the school year. Their children will then have a greater opportunity for 
 academic success. \n\nAbout Food Empowerment Project\nFounded in 2007, Food 
 Empowerment Project seeks to create a more just and sustainable world by 
 recognizing the power of one’s food choices. We encourage healthy food 
 choices that reflect a more compassionate society by spotlighting the abuse 
 of animals on farms, the depletion of natural resources, unfair working 
 conditions for produce workers, and the unavailability of healthy foods in 
 low-income areas. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit, F.E.P. is based in Cotati, Calif.. 
 For more information, please visit www.foodispower.org.\n\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/12/06/18794482.php
SUMMARY:Human Rights Advocates to Rally in Sacramento for Farm Workers
LOCATION:California Department of Housing & Community Development\n2020 W El Camino 
 Ave, Sacramento, California 95833\n
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/12/06/18794482.php
DTSTART:20161209T200000Z
DTEND:20161209T220000Z
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