400 Farmworkers receive their first COVID-19 vaccine

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A migrant worker from Chiapas, Mexico, cuts cabbage in a field near Edinburg, Texas. Farmers and field workers in the Rio Grande Valley are feeling the coronavirus pinch. With the closure of restaurants nationwide, there isn't enough demand for the produce that was planted three to four months ago. Some crops, like onions, remain in the fields where they may rot, because there isn't room in the packing houses that are already full, on Tuesday, April 7, 2020.

Vanguard Academy COVID-19 vaccination clinic was able to distribute 1,170 first doses, more than 400 were for farm workers and their families. 

Thanks to La Unión del Pueblo, MHP Salud, and Texas Rio Grande Legal aid efforts many farmworkers had the opportunity to take the vaccine, many were fearful of approaching governmental buildings for fear Border Patrol are there. 

“We are really happy to have partnered with Vanguard and Saenz Pharmacy. We have been organizing in the fields these past few months, passing out masks and PPE materials to farmworkers because they are the essential workers our nation relies on,”   said LUPE community organizer Danny Diaz. 

The vaccines were administered by Saenz Pharmacy. State Sen. Eddie Lucio was present at the start of the day, the Brownsville lawmaker is trying to get additional funding to have mobile vaccine sites to visit the Valley’s farms. So too is U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar.

Diaz said LUPE was proud to be partnering with Vanguard and Saenz Pharmacy. He also gave a shoutout to TRLA and MHP.

“Today is what a model vaccine rollout looks like. Focusing on people who have been on the front lines, who have been working the entire year. People feel safe here, they feel welcome here. This is a model way of administering the vaccine.”

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