Bank of America – One Million Masks for California Subject Staff

A million surgical masks for the farmworkers who decide California’s crops got here from Bank of America this month, and 200,000 of them are destined for Santa Barbara County. The donation to California’s Workplace of Emergency Providers was earmarked for important fieldworkers, whose circumstances of COVID-19 spiked dramatically in Santa Barbara County in July, largely within the Santa Maria space.

A heavy effort by Public Well being, the Household Providers Company, and word-of-mouth outreach campaigns by teams just like the Mixteco Indigena Neighborhood Organizing Undertaking (MICOP) succeeded in bringing the spikes from a excessive of 70-plus circumstances right down to a case charge within the 20s by October. The Household Service Company additionally runs the Housing for the Harvest program, which homes sick or uncovered folks in motel rooms and gives meals, wellness checks, and transportation in order that the people can keep away from exposing their households or roommates to coronavirus.

Recognizing MICOP’s profitable schooling program on viral unfold, Bank of America gave one other 20,000 masks to MICOP alone. Vice Chair Thong Nguyen mentioned the bank had “a responsibility to help protect the most vulnerable members of our community in these challenging times,” stating that agricultural employees have been hit tougher than most others by the pandemic. The million masks additionally went to the counties of Ventura, Fresno, Imperial, and San Diego.

“Farm labor contractors and growers large and small have been receiving the surgical masks,” mentioned Rudy Martel, Santa Barbara County’s assistant agricultural commissioner. The company has been utilizing its common emails to growers to replace them on the supply of private protecting gear (PPE), Martel mentioned, itemizing vinyl gloves, surgical and material masks, and hand sanitizer among the many PPE readily available. Notices from the company additionally alert growers to the need of hand-washing stations, bodily distance between employees, and permitting sick workers to remain residence.

His workplace has acquired requests for PPE from growers within the north and south county, Martel mentioned, including that the Household Providers Company has been doing the lion’s share of the particular distribution in all components of Santa Barbara County.

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