Reflection on "Celebration of the Harvest and the Harvesters"
Note: Hope for Creation member Karla Kauffman and director Molly Mechtenberg traveled to Buchanan, Michigan on Oct. 4, 2026 to attend the "Celebration of the Harvest and the Harvesters," an event hosted by Interfaith Action of SW Michigan. As part of this event, Molly and Karla delivered supplies donated by Kalamazoo area faith communities for migrant workers that will be delivered to camps in the coming year. Karla wrote the following reflection on the event.
Just a note to reflect on where your generosity went and the Migrant Harvest Celebration Sunday, and things I learned. Molly and I made it without incident with the loaded car, bags of beans under car seats. We got a verbal ‘you win for most donations’ salute from the couple whose van we moved things into. The Hope for Creation network shared amazing generosity!
The event was at the white tent Tabor Hill Winery event center among the grapevines (migrant-picked?). Donations were loaded into maybe 5 trucks and the van brought by Interfaith Action volunteers.
This annual celebration (without any food!) seems to be about 6 years old, and this year the volunteers distributed items donated at the 2025 event. So our contributions will be distributed next year. We were invited to write “Gracias!” cards with supplies on the tables. These are given to workers along with the donations, and convey that local people care, and appreciate them.
For me, the most impactful speaker was Mary Ann Anselmino, who told stories about her visits to 33 camps. The only one I recognized was Molters, who grow organic apples. She said most camps house men whose families are in Mexico - although the Dolores Huerta Migrant justice Leadership Award went to the Sodus Head Start (near St. Joseph), which works with migrant children. Six teachers were recognized, and they were by far the majority of Latinos/Latinas I saw at the event.
Rev. Mike Mulberry, who pastors two UCC congregations in Coloma and St. Joseph, was given the Dr. Dorothy Stang Award for Care for Creation Leadership. Sr. Dorothy was a long time activist on behalf of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest. She was killed for her work in 2005 and is known as the “martyr of the Amazon.”
I looked up a bit more about her and found this:
It looks like if we buy beef and soybeans (probably more) from Brazil we are supporting the system that murdered Sr. Dorothy. Someday I would like to build a memorial of some sort to environmental martyrs around the world.
Back to Michigan migrant workers: The season starts with asparagus. This spring had so many frosts that workers were on site for 3 weeks before working, with no pay. Some workers then detassel corn in Indiana, and return for the apple harvest. Mary Ann held up a can of Meijers tomatoes as an example of where the produce goes. We saw various company names on warehouses as we drove back home.
ICE was only mentioned in passing, by Mary Ann, who said she has a veggie logo on her van so workers know she is not ICE.
She seems to drive in to a camp unannounced and observe what she runs out of, to solicit from local organizations for the next trip. She mentioned water bottles, hoodies, Beanie Babies (to send to their children) and more I don’t recall. Most workers bring two shirts for the season, which they hand wash, so that she has also brought them clothespins.
Volunteers also received money, and delivered $3,000 worth of Gatorade packets for the hot days (higher quality than other brands – although I just heard about a recall today).
Various local faith leaders spoke and led prayers. Molly went to meet a Sikh family who opened the event, from the Sikh Temple in Kalamazoo. So Kalamazoo was well represented.
OK, I will leave it here. What a beautiful day to connect with a caring network and learn about temporary neighbors hidden from our daily lives.
Molly wrote some reflections on the event and how the climate crisis affects migrant lives in her monthly HfC newsletter.
Thank you again for your generous giving. It is going to people who need and appreciate it. Now the apples I’m buying make me think, ‘was this picked by a migrant worker?’
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