frontier college is a literacy organization that works with adults, youth and children who have little or no access to other educational opportunities or who need extra support to succeed. part of their programming is to support mexican migrant workers who come to canada every year to work on farms throughout ontario. as part of their labourer-teacher program, frontier college places volunteer workers on farms each summer to teach english and to help the mexican workers in their day to day activities. every year about 15 000 migrant workers legally come to canada from mexico to plant and harvest the food we eat. everything from tobacco, tomatoes, and tulips are tented to by these workers who have very poor to no english literacy skills. by learning english, these workers are able to empower themselves by confidently going to the grocery store, talking to doctors and communicating with their farm bosses.
wade vroom was a labourer-teacher in 2005. he worked on a tree farm in pickering, on, with 30 mexican workers.