How Growers Had To Sidestep County And State Programs To Vaccinate Farmworkers
Sunday, May 9, 2021 |
Sacramento, CA
Work continues at a winery in Clarksburg, Calif., last month. Farms are operating as essential businesses amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Rich Pedroncelli / AP Photo
In late January, Monterey County’s Board of Supervisors sent a letter to state leaders, urging them to prioritize its 64,000 farmworkers in one of the nation’s largest agricultural regions. A month later, Gov. Gavin Newsom visited a mobile vaccine clinic in Fresno, pledging tens of thousands of extra doses for farmworkers.
In turn, Chris Valadez, president of a nonprofit organization of growers, was confident he could run a mass vaccine clinic to vaccinate thousands of farmworkers. His group, the Grower-Shipper Association, partnered with Clinica de Salud del Valle de Salinas, a community-based health care provider.