The COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult for everyone, but especially for essential workers. Farmworkers have been some of the hardest hit of these workers, having to cope with the pandemic on top of the systemic injustices that are embedded in our food and farming system. <\/p>\n
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The COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult for everyone, but especially for essential workers. <\/span>Farmworkers have been some of the hardest hit of these workers,<\/a> having to cope with the pandemic on top of the systemic injustices already embedded in our food and farming system. Before the pandemic hit, farmworkers routinely dealt with hazardous working conditions \u2014 limited personal protective equipment when applying pesticides, hard labor in the hot sun with limited access to shade and drinking water, and crowded living quarters often far away from family. <\/p>\n COVID-19 has just added <\/span>another layer of hardship<\/a> \u2014 including lack of protective gear like masks and hand sanitizers or hand-washing facilities, crowded transportation to fields, and other situations in which social distancing is hard to maintain. Farmworker families have had to manage remote schoolwork without adequate access to the internet and other technology like laptops. Often, many farmworkers are also reluctant or unable to get medical help or take time off of work to protect themselves and their community in case they fall sick.<\/p>\n PAN and partners like Californians for Pesticide Reform (CPR) have shifted our work since the beginning of the pandemic to provide support to farmworker groups across California, a key agricultural state in which our farmworker advocacy campaigns are focused. We have contacted key legislative committees and policymakers in the state administration asking that funding be allocated to farmworker communities to address the following needs:<\/span><\/p>\n In addition, CPR and other partners have been at the forefront of direct assistance to farmworker families in the Central Valley and Central Coast. The Sierra Health Foundation \u2014 through its San Joaquin Valley Health Fund (SJVHF) program \u2014 has raised $4 million in assistance to distribute to folks in the San Joaquin Valley. Angel Garcia, a CPR organizer in Tulare County, and a number of young community leaders have been working directly with farmworkers and families in Tulare to distribute approximately $36,500 of this emergency assistance. <\/p>\n Nationally, groups like <\/span>United Farm Workers<\/a> have been taking the lead on advocating for farmworker protections during the pandemic, and the Migrant Clinicians Network has released comprehensive information<\/a> on farmworker challenges and recommendations for protecting farmworker health and wellbeing during the pandemic. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, California Governor Gavin Newsom and state government departments have taken some steps to protect farmworkers and food sector workers, along with other workers in California. Some highlights:<\/span><\/p>\n We are hopeful that with the joint efforts of the state government, civil society groups, community leaders and farmworker leaders, the economic and health impacts of COVID-19 will be less severe for communities across the state.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult for everyone, but especially for essential workers. Farmworkers have been some of the hardest hit of these workers, having to cope with the pandemic on top of the systemic injustices that are embedded in our food and farming system. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":32036,"template":"","blog_tag":[],"pan_blog_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pan_blog\/39189"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pan_blog"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/pan_blog"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pan_blog\/39189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"blog_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_tag?post=39189"},{"taxonomy":"pan_blog_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pan_blog_type?post=39189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\tDemanding emergency support<\/span><\/h3>\n
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\n\tSteps taken by the administration and allies<\/span><\/h3>\n
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