Open Outreach Meeting: Welcoming Rural and Migrant Ministires

Open Outreach Meeting
11:00 am, Sunday
November 17, 2024
Rural & Migrant Ministry &
Maria del mar Piedrabuena

Rural and Migrant Ministry is an Episcopal church affiliated organization that provides assistance to the underserved Long Island farming community. RMM has 4 outreach centers. Three in upstate New York and one in Riverhead.

The Riverhead office focuses specifically on the social and emotional development of the women and children involved in the farm work community. RMM provides programs in English and Spanish literacy, financial literacy, and labor rights.

They operate a cleaning cooperative for house cleaners and a farm workers cooperative that distributes fruits and vegetables to low-income families and seniors. The Riverhead office is housed in the local Episcopal church. Changing demographics led the Garden City diocese to believe that the best use of the church was to focus on the local farm community.

This week St. John’s will welcome Maria del mar Piedrabuena, the Long Island Associate Regional Coordinator for RMM. María is an award-winning multimedia journalist, editor and publisher. She is the founder and publisher of Tu Prensa Local, a local Spanish news site on the East End of Long Island. She is also a reporter for RiverheadLOCAL and a contributor of Voices of New York.

Maria has worked at leading news outlets, including RiverheadLOCAL en Español, News12, Long Island Wins, and Fortune Magazine. She has covered a wide array of topics through video, photography, online and print: from women's issues and immigration, to education, politics and national and international business stories. She was honored by the New York Press Association with a first place award for her work describing Latino sentiment on today's political climate. She has also received an Ippies Award for best social issues story for a story about DACA recipients. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor also recognized Maria's work with a letter of appreciation after she wrote a column about the importance of Latina women representation in the legal professions.

Maria has over 10 years experience working as a journalist. is passionate about local journalism and social justice, something that is reflected in her work.

A native of Spain, she graduated with honors from Stony Brook University with bachelor's degrees in Journalism (broadcast and online concentrations) and Women and Gender studies. Additionally, she has an associate's degree in Liberal Arts from Suffolk County Community College, and has completed a fellowship in Health Reporting and a Herstory practicum for teaching memoir writing for peace and writing. Maria is fluent in English, Spanish, French and Catalan.

Please join us THIS Sunday for a coffee hour to hear more about the work of Rural and Migrant Ministries.