Valadez Presents at Community Health Center Conference

Grower Shipper Association (GSA) President, Christopher Valadez, was a featured presenter at the National Association of Community Health Centers’ recent Conference for Agricultural Worker Health in Denver, Colorado.

Valadez’s presentation focused on GSA’s nationally recognized COVID-19 programs to protect ag workers and their families from suffering from illness. Valadez shared how GSA overcame numerous challenges, including supply chain shortages and breaking through red tape, to establish these new programs.

GSA programs included on-site educational outreach efforts conducted by health professionals that reached thousands; acquisition and distribution of over three million items of PPE, the first and largest quarantined housing program with daily health checks and food deliveries (which became a model for California’s “Housing for the Harvest” program) and, most notably, vaccination clinics conducted in partnership with Clinica de Salud which began in February 2021. These clinics administered 60,000+ vaccines to farm workers in the region over the last 15 months.

During his presentation Valadez emphasized that, in addition to its partnerships with Clinica and local hospitals, the key to the success of GSA’s programs was the involvement of ag employers. Working directly with ag employers allowed for effective outreach to employees and administration of programs. (While GSA knew that the employer/employee relationship was crucial, a recent survey found that employers were the most credible sources of information specific to COVID-19 for employees.)

The conference was attended by staff from health care centers, federal agencies, primary care networks and service providers. Following Valadez’ presentation, attendees shared that they were impressed by the compassion, commitment and advocacy by employers to protect farm workers throughout the pandemic.