The people behind the food
Voices

The people behind the food

Brattleboro third graders speak out about farm workers

BRATTLEBORO — Following are some letters to the editor from some young contributors, all students at Academy School in Brattleboro.

The letters came to The Commons via their teacher, Kelly Junno, who writes:

“This year, in our third grade class at Academy School, we studied climate. Our children will be intimately familiar with that word in their lifetime. Where to begin with this important topic? We spent our unit of study looking at climate and food. How does the climate dictate the food we can grow? Where does our food come from? In order to connect the children to the humans whose labor is in all the food we eat, we also asked, Who picks our food? Many people are unaware that child labor laws in this country do not apply to agriculture. The students were deeply touched to learn that other children in this country might pick the food on their plates. When I gave them the option to write a letter to the newspaper as their final activity, several of them chose to do so. These are some of their thoughts.”

We love contributions from younger readers, and we welcome and encourage the participation in these pages from other students and classrooms.

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