History

Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF) traces its history to the 1970s when child psychiatrist Dr. Robert Coles and professor Bruce Payne led twelve Duke students in a summer-long Migrant Project, investigating conditions in NC migrant camps, testifying before the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and successfully lobbying for the creation of NC Farmworker Legal Services. In the early 1980s, Payne and other faculty and students at Duke founded the Interns in Conscience project of the Hart Leadership Program, and groups of students went to southern Florida during summer breaks to work with agencies serving farmworkers.

In 1990, a grant from the US Department of Education to the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke funded college student volunteers documenting the lives of migrant farmworker children. Fourteen Duke students in the summer of 1990 and eleven more in 1991 participated in the Center's Migrant Summer Program along with several UNC students. In 1992 students from Duke and UNC participated in a joint service-learning class about farmworker issues and the summer internship program.

Inspired by other activists, a group of students enlisted farmworker advocates, farmworkers, and community members to incorporate SAF as a nonprofit in 1992. Since 1992, SAF has directly impacted thousands of farmworkers, students and community members:

• 80,000 farmworkers and their family members have gained access to health, legal, education, and organizing support provided by SAF interns in the Carolinas,
• 2500 migrant students have developed leadership skills through SAF sponsored art projects, college tours, and retreats in rural North Carolina,
• 800 students and faculty have learned about current farmworker issues and farm labor campaigns at SAF's national conferences,
• 500 college students from universities across the country have developed leadership skills and learned to think critically about social justice through SAF summer internships,
• 100 farmworker organizations have partnered with SAF in the Carolinas alone, on critical issues such as migrant housing reform and access to higher education for students,
• Thousands of individuals have gained knowledge about and become involved with advocating for farmworker justice through SAF's community engagement work.