Addressing educational inequity in migrant farm workers' home communities

Project Description: Workers voted to invest Fair Trade Community Development Funds in migrant workers' home communities, providing school supplies for families and professional training for local teachers. The farm contributed funds as well to help this project reach even more communities.
Reason for the Project: Many Driscoll's workers are migrants, traveling across Mexico from remote rural communities to the berry fields in northern Baja California during the harvest season. While Fair Trade projects on the farm have made a huge impact for workers, there are additional needs in their distant home communities, which have experienced deep historical inequities and often lack basic infrastructure and services. Workers from the states of Tlaxcala, Michoacán, Hidalco, and Veracruz identified education as a top issue - both educational quality as well as costs that prevent many children from finishing their education.
Project Outcome: 3,112 students in migrant workers' home communities received school supplies, including books, pencils, erasers, and backpacks, addressing a major economic barrier to school attendance for many families. 150 teachers in these communities attended trainings from a Mexico City-based nonprofit organization that works to promote innovative teaching strategies with the aim of improving the quality of math, reading, and writing education in local schools.