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On Friday, March 1, Representative Chuck McGrady of North Carolina’s House of Representatives met with ECMHSP staff Jenny Guzman, NCDS Head Start Administrator, and Carrie Jo Fiene, Hendersonville Center Director, at the Underground Baking Company. This downtown Hendersonville bakery is one of Representative McGrady’s favorite places to have coffee and pastries, and we enjoyed the opportunity to share with him the services ECMHSP provides to agricultural families in and around Henderson County.
We opened our conversation by presenting Representative McGrady with our preschool book, De Mano a Mano y de Campo a Plato – From Hand to Hand and from Field to Fork, along with the ECMHSP 2017 Annual Report and other important information about our Head Start services. Representative McGrady took the time to read our wonderful book while Jenny Guzman explained to him that the book is one of the lessons in the resource educational curriculum, “Our Children, Our Families.”
Representative McGrady mentioned he was familiar with Head Start; however, he was not aware that ECMHSP existed to serve the unique needs of farmworker families.
“This was a great opportunity to start building relationships,” Representative McGrady said during the meeting, adding that he was willing to assist us in any way possible. He is aware of some of the challenges and needs in serving North Carolina’s migrant and seasonal farmworker families.
Carrie Jo Fiene invited Representative McGrady to visit our Hendersonville MSHS Center during our operational months — an invitation he readily accepted.
Overall, this meeting was a great opportunity to start building stronger collaboration and relationship with our community partners, and continue to advocate for our migrant and seasonal agricultural worker and their children in Henderson County, North Carolina.