LynOaken Harvest Crews
We’ve all been seeing the signs of fall – the cooler nights, kids preparing for school, leaves starting to change color. For us at LynOaken Farms, the surest sign of fall is the arrival of our harvest crews from Jamaica which happened this past Tuesday night! While we have an awesome crew of about 10 local workers who handle most of the orchard tasks throughout the year (pruning, planting, thinning, etc),when it’s time to harvest apples, we need more farmworkers. A LOT more farmworkers! With over 150,000 bushels of apples to get off the trees in a short 9 week window, we need all the help we can get.
Luckily, we are able to take part in the US Dept of Labor’s H-2A Temporary Agricultural Program. Because there are not enough domestic workers to fill the demand during peak agricultural seasons, farms like ours can apply to host seasonal foreign guestworkers through the H-2A program. In order to qualify, the jobs available must be posted (usually on government job boards) and filled by domestic workers first (which rarely happens because the jobs are seasonal and not year round). If those available jobs are not filled, the farm can then receive workers from all over the world who contract with the government to work for a specific, temporary time frame when they’re needed most.
These H-2A workers hail from all over the world- South Africa, Jamaica, Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras, just to name a few. This year we have 34 workers coming from Jamaica, many of whom have been working for us since our farm first became involved in the program in 2007! These men all come from various industries in their home country - some are farmworkers there, while others are mechanics, security guards, truck drivers, chefs, or part of the tourism industry. But for them, coming to the US through the H-2A program is worth the two months of hard labor in sometimes harsh weather, away from family and friends. They can make up to a year’s Jamaican salary in just 9 weeks here! And while they save a lot of their money to support their families back home, they spend a lot of it locally, too. Their purchases of restaurant food, groceries, and gifts helps to support our local economy while providing the workers the opportunity to purchase goods at a lower cost here and ship items back to Jamaica. We’ve even had guys purchase refrigerators to send home because the cost of the fridge plus shipping was still less than a refrigerator in Jamaica.
Some of the crew from last year’s harvest
As part of their H-2A contract, the host farm must provide housing and transportation – a harrowing job to coordinate air and bus travel for 34 people from Jamaica all the way to Orleans County, NY! We provide three dormitory style houses for our crews, each with a shared kitchen and common area. There are the usual disagreements that arise from 30+ people living and working together, but for the most part, the guys develop close bonds with each other and have a great working rapport when they’re out in the orchards.
We are so grateful for the hard work our harvest crews do for us every year. The H-2A workers, along with our local year-round crew and a few guys who come up from Florida, are responsible for every single apple that gets picked off the trees at LynOaken Farms. They work almost every single day in all types of weather (a Jamaican picking apples in snow is a pretty unhappy Jamaican!). You may see buses or vans with these agricultural workers at banks on payday, at grocery stores or big box stores, at restaurants or convenience stores picking up food. Next time you do, tip your hat and give a hello, these guys (and thousands others across the country) are serving a vital role filling job vacancies and helping to put food on all of our tables.
All my best,
Katie