Episode 6: Food for Thought from Mighty Writers in Kennett Square

Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, aka the Mushroom Capital of the World, is about an hour south of Philadelphia. Fully half of the U.S. gets its mushrooms from Kennett Square, and the majority of people who make that happen, often in substandard working and living conditions, are migrant farmworkers from Mexico, Central America and Venezuela. 

Many of these workers depend on community organizations like Mighty Writers El Futuro Kennett, which hosts a bustling, market-style food pantry and cheery after-school center. Today we speak with Mighty Writers’ Distribution Operations Manager Anita Davidson and Mighty Writers volunteer Nelson Alberto Contreras Gelves, a Venezuelan migrant worker who fled political persecution back home. Nelson tells us his immigration story and explains why he feels so connected to the food pantry.

This is a story of friendship. But it’s also about the intersection of food, politics, migration, community and history — and a reminder to those of us from immigrant backgrounds to never forget our own place in the so-called American Dream.