Our YoloWorks team, in collaboration with EDD Workforce Services Migrant & Seasonal Farmworkers (MSFW) Outreach team, organized the first MSFW Resource Fair on Thursday, April 25th. The event took place at the community room of Mutual Housing at Spring Lake in Woodland. This is a housing community that accommodates over 100 farmworking families. Farmworker communities require various resources to support their members' well-being and livelihoods. Our goal was to bring together organizations that provide services for farmworkers in one place. This way, farmworkers could learn about available resources, such as education, health, legal, and employment services in time for the new season. More than 15 local organizations brought their services and resources to the community. La Superior Supermercado donated food and beverages for the event.

Welcome baskets are prepared by the Agricultural Labor Coordinator and volunteers from partner organizations during National Farmworker Awareness Week. These baskets include essential home cleaning supplies, such as hand soap, paper towels, all-purpose cleaners, toilet paper, Lysol wipes, and a laundry basket. 

The purpose of these baskets is to help farmworkers settle in and provide them with a healthy start to the season. It's a great partnership between local organizations to provide resources for our migrant farmworkers.

The welcome baskets were delivered to all 3 migrant centers on opening day, totaling 238 baskets.

During the last week of March, we celebrated National Farmworker Awareness Week by organizing our annual Long-sleeve and Bandana Drive. YoloWorks!, in collaboration with several partner agencies, initiated a campaign to collect new or gently used long-sleeved shirts, hats and bandanas to donate to farmworkers in Yolo County. 

We placed a collection box at our partner agencies' location and gathered the items from, March 25th to March 29th. Our aim was to show our support for the farmworkers and to help them stay protected from the sun and other environmental elements that they are exposed to daily while they work hard to provide us with food.

Valley Tire Center has proudly hosted the local Ag Fest during Ag Week in Woodland for 21 years. The event offers food, vendors, free merchandise, and resources to attendees. This year, YoloWorks! was invited to provide resources to over 150 farmworkers who attended the event. YoloWorks provided information on the local services and resources available to farmworkers.

YoloWorks!, Yolo Food Bank, and De Colores have collaborated with Mutual Housing at Springlake to provide resources and activities for farmworking families residing in the farmworking housing community. Mutual Housing offers housing to farm labor tenants, and every year, they organize a holiday celebration for their tenants. This year, we were invited to provide services and resources to the families. We interacted with more than 50 families, and we received a call from a local motorcycle club called Solo Cholos de Woodland, who donated items for children and adults. The event was a success, and families enjoyed the activities, resources, and gifts.

De Colores Resource Center and YoloWorks! partnered up to create a farmworker retreat with a focus on mental health and well-being. The retreat happened on Saturday, November 18th from 10am - 3pm and we had over 20 participants. The event featured a licensed therapist who speaks Spanish and understands the culture of many migrant and seasonal farmworker (MSFW) families. Our main goal was to provide MSFW families with tools they can use to address their mental health and well-being. We also hosted several workshops that brought conversations about work climate stress and cultivating community. During the event, farmworkers were given space to express their concerns regarding safety at work, farmworker rights, community support, lack of community resources, and the language barrier. Additionally, we had a personal trainer teach us about taking care of the body by doing routine stretches daily. Overall, this was an excellent event that helped MSFWs learn about mental health resources and gave them a space to express their concerns and understanding of available resources. 

In 2021, Governor Newsom signed SB 721, which would designate August 26 of each year as California Farmworker Day. Nearly 8,000 farmworkers in Yolo County are essential to the global food supply as well as our economy. We will have a resource fair and provide food and entertainment to highlight, remember, and appreciate the work that farmworkers contribute daily. The purpose of the event is to connect farmworkers and their families with support services and local resources.  

The multi-community event honored new and returning migrant farmworkers, recognized their contributions to the community and the vibrancy of California's population and economy, and connected them to a variety of resources. The festival, held at Esparto Middle School on Saturday, April 29th from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., featured important community resources (COVID-19 information, local school enrollment, and resources, disaster preparedness, legal and other social services), free food, activities for adults and children, workshops, and entertainment. 

YoloWorks and Puentes Network collaborated to collect long sleeves and bandanas for our farmworkers in Yolo County's migrant centers. We were also assembling welcome baskets, which included basic house cleaning supplies such as hand soap, paper towels, all-purpose cleaners, toilet paper, Lysol wipes, resources, and a laundry basket! The purpose of the basket is to help farmworkers get started and wish them a healthy start to the season. It was a fantastic cooperative effort between neighborhood organizations coming together to offer resources for our migrant farmworkers. 

Rise organizes a gathering every three months for farmworkers in Esparto and the Capay Valley. They invite county-based partner agencies and organizations to present resources and services. We were given a table and had a chance to discuss our program and respond to inquiries for fifteen minutes. In order to build a database and inform our farmworkers when new resources are accessible, we developed a sign-up sheet for farmworker information. Overall, it was a fantastic event for the people of Esparto and the Capay Valley.

This project proposes to provide temporary relief to Yolo County farmworkers for the winter months of December through March when household income is most likely to decrease due to seasonal layoffs and families are most likely to experience food insecurity. Secondly, the project aims to increase long-term assistance using CalFresh by diffusing common misconceptions of CalFresh ineligibility for undocumented residents, destigmatizing the program as a welfare benefit deemed a Public Charge, and providing direct assistance to participants with CalFresh applications. Lastly, the proposal aims to engage participants in a comprehensive farmworker survey aimed at determining the current needs of this population to help address food insecurity and other determinants that lead to poor health outcomes including income, housing, childcare, and transportation.

This was a one-time project to aid Yolo County farmworkers who reside within the County to give them the financial means to access culturally nutritious meals during the winter months when household income has decreased significantly due to seasonal layoffs. This project was inclusive of our undocumented farmworkers who are even more susceptible to food insecurity during the winter months due to ineligibility for state unemployment benefits.