Ending Hunger in America, 2014 Hunger Report Full Report | Page 93

IMMIGRANTS IN THE U.S. FOOD SYSTEM CHAPTER 2 Andrew Wainer, Bread for the World Institute More than 70 percent of all hired U.S. farm workers are foreign-born, mostly from Mexico, and about half are undocumented.1 Many arrive in the United States to escape poverty and hunger in their homelands. They can earn more money in the United States, but they still live on poverty-level wages and suffer from food insecurity. Maria, an immigrant from Mexico who works harvesting vegetables, is an example of the sacrifices that immigrant agricultural workers make to feed their families. Maria came to Florida para salir adelante—to get ahead. She arrived as a teenager in the mid-1990s, escaping a life of poverty on her family’s Oaxacan corn patch. In south Florida, she worked seve