April 28, 2005

A UMNS photo by Bill Norton Signing the housing agreement are (from left) Herbert Rouse, Harvey Farms; Bill Bryan, Mt. Olive Pickle Co.; the Rev. Charles M. Smith, North Carolina Annual Conference, and John Burness, Duke University.

By Bill Norton and Lynn Williams*

MOUNT OLIVE, N.C. (UMNS)—Private business, higher education and the United Methodist Church are partnering to build a model house designed to promote the need for quality housing for migrant farm workers.

Representatives from Mt. Olive Pickle Co., Harvey Farms of Kinston, N.C., Duke University and the North Carolina Annual (regional) Conference of the United Methodist Church signed the agreement April 22 in a brief ceremony at First United Methodist Church in Mount Olive.

The 2,800-square-foot house, designed to house up to 17 workers, will be built on land owned by Harvey Farms, just off U.S. 70 near Kinston. Construction is expected to start late this summer, with completion before spring 2006.

Mt. Olive, United Methodist related-Duke and the Duke Endowment, on behalf of the North Carolina Conference, contributed $130,000 toward the estimated $270,000 construction cost. Olive also funded design work by Partin-Hobbs & Associates of Goldsboro.

“The issue of good housing for migrant farm workers is a long-standing one with the United Methodist Church and other members of the North Carolina Council of Churches,” said the Rev. Charles M. Smith, the conference’s director of connectional ministries and a Duke trustee. “Our dream is that this house will serve as a model for the rest of the state and possibly the nation, and we hope that many imitations of this housing for migrant farm workers will be built throughout the country.”

The project’s goal is to generate awareness about the housing need. The agreement stipulates that Harvey Farms must maintain the house and make it available for others in the state to visit.

“We hope to stimulate conversation in the agricultural community about what quality migrant housing can look like,” said Bill Bryan, president of Mt. Olive Pickle Co. “We want growers to visit the house and take away sound ideas that they can incorporate into their own migrant housing.”

The news of the project comes seven months after the end of a national boycott against Mt. Olive. The United Methodist Church joined the boycott in spring 2004 to support the Farm Labor Organizing Committee’s efforts to improve working conditions for farm workers in North Carolina. The boycott ended with the signing of two agreements Sept. 16—one a collective bargaining agreement between the Ohio-based Farm Labor Organizing Committee and the North Carolina Growers Association, covering 8,000 farm workers, and the other a settlement between Mt. Olive and the union.

A UMNS photo by Bill Norton The model home plan for North Carolina migrant farm workers is designed for simple replication.

In June, the North Carolina Conference will vote on a resolution commending Bryan and Mt. Olive for their work in resolving the boycott. The resolution commends Mt. Olive and Bryan for “patient and persistent efforts in the face of public attack to find a fair and constructive solution to farm workers issues raised by FLOC, including its eventual willingness to participate in the historic labor agreement.”

The conference will vote on the resolution during its annual meeting, June 8- 11.

The agreement for the migrant housing model culminates almost three years of work that began in 2002, when Duke and Mt. Olive formed a partnership to discuss issues confronting migrant farm workers in North Carolina. The conference joined the effort in 2003.

“When we were talking with Mt. Olive a couple of years ago, one of the priorities we all recognized was the need for adequate, decent housing,” said John Burness, Duke’s senior vice president for government affairs and public relations. “The N.C. Conference, Duke and Mt. Olive all resolved to make something important happen.”

The house is designed for simple replication. Other criteria are to meet or exceed the state’s migrant housing standards and to address the needs of farm workers. The design is based on an eight-foot grid to conform to standard building materials and minimize waste.

The migrant housing project “brings our farming operation up to a new standard,” said Herbert Rouse, executive vice president of agronomics for Harvey Farms. “We haven’t had much need for migrant housing in the past, but we’re bringing that part of our farming operation up to a higher level. We appreciate having people learn from what we are trying to do.”

The house will feature:

• Four bedrooms housing up to four workers each, and one one-person room;
• A commons area with a higher ceiling, operable exterior and interior windows, and an 8-foot-wide corridor designed to improve natural ventilation;
• Durable, common materials, such as concrete floors, block walls and a metal roof;
• Covered porches created by the roof’s overhang;
• Bathroom, kitchen and laundry facilities that meet or exceed state migrant housing standards;
• Outside access to bathrooms and laundry areas; and
• Basic telephone service.

The design has been reviewed and endorsed by the Housing Development Corp., a consortium of farm worker advocate organizations working to address housing issues for farm workers in North Carolina.

*Norton is director of communications for the United Methodist Church’s North Carolina Annual Conference. Williams is community relations director for Mt. Olive Pickle Co.

News media contact: Tim Tanton, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.