Agape Service Project: 20 years of serving, creating relationships with farmworker families
Mar 18, 2023
Local
WHATCOM COUNTY — Rosa Figueroa spent the summer of 2021 setting up a food distribution program and serving as a translator for farmworkers during the summer harvest season in Whatcom County.
“This was the first time I had a job that went along with my faith and with my values,” said Figueroa, who is studying preschool education at Western Washington University. “I want to put that into action in serving the children.”
Figueroa was one of the college-age leaders participating in the Agape Service Project, which marked its 20th anniversary with a fundraising celebration March 18.
Agape was created through the Newman Center at Western Washington University in Bellingham as a way to provide opportunities for local faith-based service immersion for parishes in the archdiocese, said Kelsey Harrington, director of the self-funded ministry. (In 2019, it moved under the umbrella of the archdiocese’s pastoral care and outreach ministry.)
Youth groups began volunteering with the program in 2004, when seven parishes participated. Over the past 20 years, more than 3,000 youth and adult participants have come from 55 parishes and schools to participate in Agape, providing 186 weeks of service immersion, according to Harrington.
The Agape experience is a combination of Catholic social teaching, daily prayer and community living. The project provides food, clothing and community support for farmworker families, while building personal relationships with them. The project aims to inspire youth to continue answering the call to serve throughout their lives.
During Agape’s two decades, Harrington said, 40 young adults have served as staff leaders, bringing their faith and passion for social justice to the missionary discipleship experience. Harrington was a member of the program’s young adult staff from 2007 to 2009.
“It’s a good, productive way to spend your summer giving back,” said April Jordan-Hulsey, who recently served as youth minister at Sacred Heart and Assumption parishes in Bellingham. “Overall, it’s a really humbling experience,” added Jordan-Hulsey, who now works for Catholic Community Services of Western Washington.
Relationships mean a lot
Whatcom County produces about 70 percent of the country’s red raspberries, along with blueberries and strawberries, Harrington said. The summer harvest season draws people to fill about 6,000 jobs for eight to 10 weeks, she said, and a lot of families return each summer.
“We’ve known these families for the past 16, 17, or 18 years,” she said.
The farmworkers are paid below the U.S. poverty line, Harrington said, and farmworker families deal with issues around housing, health care access and education.
Each week during the harvest season, youth from parishes around the archdiocese arrive to participate in Agape. They collect food donations, work at the Agape food bank, experience what it’s like to do farm work, visit migrant worker camps and organize a barbecue for the farmworkers and their families, Jordan-Hulsey said.
The youth stay at a school, where they are expected to live simply, Jordan-Hulsey said. For youth from Bellingham, it is an opportunity to learn about a different culture just 10 minutes away from their parish, she noted.
Figueroa, who served as a young adult leader in 2021 and 2022, said she learned about Agape through the Newman Center at Western Washington University. Although helping lead Agape involved working long days and always being on the move, Figueroa said she enjoyed meeting the families.
“The relationships with these families mean a lot,” she said. “We became a family at the end.”
Increased services, increased need
Over the years, Agape has partnered with other organizations to provide more services, such as summer school, for farmworker families. Since 2018, Agape has awarded 16 scholarships totaling $8,000 for farmworkers pursuing higher education. In 2021, Agape was selected as a “Health Provider of the Year” by the Washington State Migrant Education Program.
Agape’s food bank has grown over the years. It began in 2007 at Assumption Parish in Bellingham, moving to Lynden the next year to be closer to its clients. For 14 years, it operated as an outdoor, pop-up food bank in the field and parking lot of Third Christian Reformed Church, but in 2022 moved indoors for the first time in partnership with the Lynden School District.
The new location offers refrigeration and electricity as well as a more dignified experience for guests, Harrington said. The average number of families served by the Agape Food Bank each summer has grown from 92 in 2009 to 295 in 2022. In fact, 412 families were served during just one week in 2022.
“That just demonstrates the quality and quantity of what we’re able to provide,” she added.
For the last two years, the food bank has received grants from Food Lifeline and was featured in one of the organization’s promotional videos.
Agape’s impact extends beyond the farmworker families it serves and the youth it inspires with faith-based service.
Some of the college-age staffers have taken professional positions in youth ministry and Catholic education or joined Jesuit Volunteer Corps, Harrington said.
The Agape Service Project continues to evolve.
This summer, a seminarian will be on the staff, gaining experience speaking Spanish, working with youth and engaging people on the margins, Harrington said. Through a partnership with the Intercommunity Peace and Justice Center in Seattle, 10 high school groups from the West Coast will participate in Agape in late July, Harrington said.
“What we’re doing is very beautiful and fulfilling,” Figueroa said.