Santa Clara County Begins Vaccinating 1,000 Farm Workers

MORGAN HILL, CA — Santa Clara County began vaccinating 1,000 farm workers over two days this week at Monterey Mushrooms in Morgan Hill.

On Sunday, county health officials held a news briefing at the agricultural employer’s site, where the county launched its first mobile COVID-19 vaccination clinic in an effort to ensure equity in access to vaccines and target communities most impacted by the virus. Employees at Monterey Mushrooms and other farms in the area will be among the first 1,000 workers vaccinated.

“The people that are getting vaccinated today can begin to breathe more easily,” said Dr. Sara Cody, the county’s public health officer. “Their families can begin having to stop having to worry so intensely about them.”

According to Diana Tellefson Torres, the executive director of the United Farm Workers Foundation, a majority of farm workers want to get vaccinated, but don’t have access despite putting their health at risk to be on the job.

Beginning Sunday, farm and agricultural workers were among Santa Clara County residents who became eligible to receive the vaccine along with educators and those working in emergency services.

“Up until now, it’s been a challenge to get counties to actually start to trigger the farmworker priority,” Torres said. “But Santa Clara County is showing us how it should be done throughout the state.”

Monterey Mushrooms has over 4,000 employees and grows more than 200 million pounds of fresh mushrooms each year, according to its website.

“We talk about national security,” said Shah Kazemi, CEO of Monterey Mushrooms. “The food supply is a significant part of national security, and we don’t need any disruption in our food supply. Our ag workers have risked their lives every day to make sure there’s no disruption.”