Beta Gamma Nu’s (BGN) Heart of the USA spring philanthropy event celebrated five years of service on Monday.

The event provided a mini resource fair and free goodies to the community of Kettleman City, specifically targeting 100 farmworkers of Family Tree Farms.

Held annually since 2021, the fraternity raises money through raffles and donations to provide a group of farmworkers with free essential supplies such as; sombreros, gloves, bandanas and some clothing items, with the goal of making them feel appreciated.

Osvaldo Estrada, a member of BGN and the community service chair, took the lead role in putting the event together this year. He has worked in the agriculture fields since he was 11 years old and chose Kettleman City because it is approximately 10 minutes from Avenal, where he grew up and worked.

“I think everyone left super happy and feeling good about the fact that we work in the fields,” Rosalva Zavala, Estrada’s mom and a farmworker for over 20 years, said in Spanish.

He credits a lot of his growth to his work in the fields and says that his parents have always pushed him to do greater things.

“I’ve learned a lot of lessons,” Estrada said. “I’ve learned hard work, I learned dedication, discipline and it’s because of them [his parents] that I’m here at college.”

He wanted to showcase support for the workers, recognizing that a lot of them are immigrants.

Estrada’s mom said she is exceptionally proud and grateful for her son’s efforts.

“I’m super thankful to God that I have my kids and I’m just so proud of my son for having organized this event,” Zavala said in Spanish. “I’ve worked in packing, in the fields and my son has also worked in the fields.”

The event took life during the COVID-19 pandemic, because two brothers of BGN, Armando Santos and Oswaldo Fernandez saw a lack of support for the farmworking community.

“When the pandemic came, although all these jobs were like putting regulations to protect their workers, farm workers were not like that, there was nobody there to enforce that on them,” Santos said.

A variety of different groups including, the College Assistant Migrant Program (CAMP), the Farm Workers Advocacy Club and the United Farm Workers Foundation came together to support the cause, whether through donating funds or giveaway items.

The event also featured music, a mobile health clinic that was checking the farmworkers vitals and iron levels, a taco stand with free tacos and refreshments and groceries like avocados and crates of eggs.

Most, if not all of the members of BGN were present at the event, each of them taking on different stations; handing out bags of groceries, giving out thank you notes or helping serve the food.

Estrada says he didn’t come to college with the plan to join a fraternity, however, after speaking with the brothers at a tabling event on campus, he knew it was the place for him.

“A lot of these guys, they’re very similar to me, they come from families like [mine] and so I felt like it was a good connection,” Estrada said. “Fresno State is very diverse, and they know what hard work is, and most of my fraternity, we’ve all worked in the field, so we know the struggle.”

The event did take a lot of planning and it was a coincidence that it landed on Cesar Chavez Day this year.

“We always talk to the supervisor first to see if it’s actually fine to go out there and do it and [when] they give us the confirmation that [we can go] they’ll round up the workers and they’ll pay their last hour just to go and get the resources,” Estrada said.

A lot of the farmworkers present at the event shared similar emotions, encouraging the younger generation to stay in school and study hard.

Most people who work in the fields are undocumented because it’s the only place that they are able to work, due to their immigration status.

“The field work is so difficult, they [the upcoming generations] should study because the truth is there’s no future here,” said Eduardo Cisneros, a five-year worker for Family Tree Farms, in an interview with BGN in Spanish.

Maura Hernandez, a farmworker since she arrived from Mexico 18 years ago, shared the same sentiment.

“To all the young adults, I advise them to put their effort into school, because working in the fields is very difficult especially in the summertime,” Hernandez said.

The brothers took this event as an opportunity to reflect on the work they used to do.

“While I was working in the field, I feel like I never took the opportunity to take a step back and realize what I was doing, like the hard work that it was,” Santos said.

For Estrada, it hit especially close to home due to his hometown roots.

“It’s a different type of feeling, to be able to give back to where I grew up and the community that built me up to be here at Fresno State,” Estrada said.