YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

June 23, 2007

Federal funds secured for farm worker skills training program

By PAT MUIIR
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

A farm worker training program administered from Yakima is in line for $250,000 of federal money.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., announced Thursday that the Senate Appropriations Committee included the money in a spending bill that now will go to the full Senate for approval.

"This funding will help create a new center of training in Yakima that will train more productive year-round workers, build our agricultural economy and reduce unemployment," Murray said in a news release.

Gilberto Alaniz, the
Yakima-based state program director for the Opportunities Industrialization Center of Washington, said the money would provide training so unskilled laborers such as fruit pickers can learn skills such as pesticide application and driving tractors. They can also be trained for commercial driver's licenses.

"We want to prepare these individuals so they can do more work than just (seasonal) picking, so they can stay longer on the job," Alaniz said.

The OIC is already administering the program through a $250,000 state grant. The federal money would allow the program to continue in 2008 and 2009.

The agency is working with the state Farm Bureau and Washington Growers League to provide the program at training centers throughout the state.

"Wherever the training needs to take place, that's where we do it," Alaniz said.