Migrant families come to Manchester to work each year, May through October, at the Du Russel Potato Farm in Manchester, Michigan.  Join us in showing them some hospitality & learning from them about life as migrant workers. The St. Francis of Assisi Parish Migarnt Ministry is encouraging and assisting with some of the unmet basic needs.  We serve all 4 camps at the farm.  The camps/neighborhoods are groups of small mobile homes separated by fields. They share outdoor laundry. Each camp has roughly 10-15 families, with 6-10 people in each family. They farm 2,000 acres.  Each year along with 10 varieties of potatoes, they grow many other vegetable crops, such as peppers, cilantro, parsley, dill, sweet corn, cucumbers, mustard, collard and turnip greens and arugula. Spinach is a new crop the DuRussels are growing. They began planting a few acres of it three years ago.  In 2006 they grew 1,000 tons of spinach.  They send it to Campbell's for its V-8 Juice. They plant radishes every two days during the summer, so that there is a fresh crop every three weeks.    (More News)

· Read a book to migrant children on a Saturday afternoon at 3:30PM. (contact Hilary Connors 316-2633) .

· Household Item Donation Drive: At St. Francis Sunday, May 31 and June 7, 2009.   We could use your help to make this drive work out well and get the items delivered and distributed.  Contact:  Rita Kieras (761-7796) 
Donation Drive for Migrant Workers
(Migrants often need towels- because of the heavy and dark soil they always welcome these throughout the season.)

· Help organize a youth programs for sports, drama or music with the children (contact Millie Delia Vazquez , or:  Rita Kieras (761-7796)  ).

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· Sunday Masses are held in Spanish for migrant families and anyone else who would like to attend, at the DuRussel farm.
 

For more details contact: Scott Wright (734-821-2121) 

The DuRussel family members are long time active Catholics who employ and advocate for migrant workers in Michigan.

Mike DuRussel was recently named to the National Policy Board for Migrant Health, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He meets with the board, and travels to other parts of the country that employ migrant workers, such as Texas and California.

During the summer the farm employs 120 people, including migrant workers who are housed at the farm and work from June to October. In the winter, 12 employees stay on and sort and bag potatoes for transport to local markets or other states.

News from April 5, 2007:  At DuRussel's Potato Farms,
Manchester...  (source)