Governor Announces Statewide Program Modeled After GSA’s Farm Worker Quarantine Housing

California Governor Gavin Newsom announced on July 24 that the state plans to “build on” the Grower Shipper Association of Central California’s (GSA) quarantined housing program for farm workers in our region. In his announcement, the Governor said that GSA and the farming community have done “an incredible job in this state supporting ag workers and farm workers. I want to thank the ag industry who have been very supportive of that program.”

GSA began its program in April after recognizing the need to provide safe and comfortable housing for workers who are symptomatic, tested positive for COVID-19 or have been exposed to the virus. This quarantined housing protects the health of farm workers as well as their families and housemates. GSA provides all farm workers it houses with daily food deliveries and other necessities as well as regular health checks coordinated through Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital.

Newsom referred to his plan modeled after the GSA program as a “Housing and Harvest” partnership which will provide temporary housing for ag workers throughout other farming regions in the state. “We are going to expand assets and provide more support,” Newsom said.

In addition to the quarantined housing program, GSA has created other unique programs to support the farming community’s efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among its workforce. These include partnering with local hospitals to provide onsite COVID-19 prevention training for agricultural employees, developing a system for expedited COVID-19 test results for farm workers in conjunction with Clinica de Salud del Valle de Salinas (CSVS), and securing and distributing over a million face masks.

“We thank Governor Newsom for his acknowledgement and praise for GSA’s housing program,” says Chris Valadez, GSA President. “We all must continue to work diligently to protect essential employees who are integral to supplying food to consumers and are invaluable to growing, nurturing and harvesting fruits and vegetables.”