Today our group spent the day at the San Jose Mission which is
a ministry of the Catholic Charities Diocese of St. Petersburg Inc. The mission
is known for housing migrant farm workers.
However, the mission does a lot more offering various services such as a
free health clinic and helping people with immigration. These services are not
just available to the 120 families who live at the mission but to the community
as a whole. In order to receive services through the mission, family must be at
the poverty level. To live in the
residential units, the family must be involved in the agricultural business as
well as meeting the income guidelines. Our group spent part of the morning
learning about Migrant Farm workers from Maria and Sister Sara before receiving
a brief tour of the property. Then we got down to the physical labor. Some of
us cleaned and organized the health clinic while others raked and cleaned
outside. Something that I noticed along with others in the group was how appreciative
all the workers were of the tasks completed today. They told us that the work
we completed today was things that they do not have the time or resources to
do. Maria from the mission treated us to
an authentic Hispanic dinner which we all seemed to enjoy. I would describe
today as an eye opening experience and gave deeper meaning on one of the
reasons why we are here in Ruskin.
~Jennifer Hepler
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