St. Anthony Messenger: Harvesting Justice

Julie Taylor remembers growing up working long days on her grandparents’ farm in rural Alabama. They would pick vegetables, but before that, her grandparents raised cotton and peanuts for their livelihood. It was hard work, but she could always go inside for a bathroom or water break. On blistering hot summer days, she had the luxury of completing her work in the morning. Never was she harassed or abused or treated as anything less than a human being.
Decades later her life would come full circle when she joined the board of the National Farm Worker Ministry (NFWM) and was introduced to the plight of farmworkers in America. NFWM, which began in 1920 as a “ministry of charity and service, providing food, clothing, and day care to farmworkers,” shifted its focus to justice in the 1960s in response to the call of activist and United Farm Workers (UFW) cofounder Cesar Chavez...
Read the remainder of this feature in the February 2025 issue of the St. Anthony Messenger HERE. This is the second article in a series that looks at rebuilding God’s Church in the spirit of St. Francis. Click HERE to subscribe to the St. Anthony Messenger.
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