By Catherine M. Welch
Wilmington, NC – Religious leaders from across the state will converge on a Raleigh park Wednesday to call for an end to farm worker deaths.
The National Farm Worker Ministry says it's difficult to know exactly how many of them have suffered work-related deaths because many workers die in auto accidents to and from the fields.
But the group says in the last couple of years at least six farm workers in North Carolina have died from heat stroke, including a man who died on a Robeson County melon farm.
Lori Fernald-Khamala of the National Farm Worker Ministry's says she hopes people think of these workers during this Lenten season.
This is a very invisible population, yet it's a group of people that makes it possible for us to eat the fruits and vegetables every day.
Fernald-Khamala says she hopes state lawmakers and the governor take action to protect North Carolina farm workers this legislative session.