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Farmworkers struggle to find work after crop-killing freeze
IMMOKALEE
— Usually, it’s their job to put food on people’s tables.
But a lack of work due to the recent crop-killing freeze has Immokalee
farm workers in need of some outside assistance.
For the past month, Isaias Lopez has worked one day a week picking
tomatoes in Immokalee.
“With the little work that we have, the little help helps us a lot,”
Lopez, 22, said in Spanish. “We thank them for their goodwill.”
To help Lopez and others like him, the Salvation Army of Collier County
opened a food distribution center in Immokalee that will provide food to
farmworkers for six weeks.
Inside the center, adjacent to the The Salvation Army office in
Immokalee, volunteers filled about 1,500 boxes with perishable food,
including rice, cans of vegetables, peanut butter and milk.
On the first day of food distribution, about 120 farmworkers picked up
food boxes.
Lopez is one of about 850 farmworkers who went to the Salvation Army for
assistance last week.
Lopez, who has been a farmworker for two years, said he hasn’t been able
to send money home to his parents and brother in
“We hope it gets better because it’s infuriating,” Lopez said.
Lopez’s girlfriend, Angelina Santiago, 30, said in Spanish the support
farmworkers were getting in a time of need was very good.
“It’s really hard, really hard,”
On Tuesday morning, the couple walked for an hour and half to pick up
their food boxes.
Gene McAvoy, a multi-county vegetable agent with the
About 70 percent of the crops were destroyed and the crops that survived
aren’t really growing, McAvoy said.
“It’s going to be a really short season,” McAvoy said. Season usually
ends in May.
“I’m glad to hear that the workers are getting some assistance,” he
said. “It’s sorely needed.”
More than 850 families signed up for the program, the maximum the
Salvation Army could handle with the resources it has, Chris Nind,
director of development and community relations, wrote in an e-mail.
The Sign-up period for food was held last week. Recipients provided an
identification and a farmworker identification. Each worker received a
booklet with six vouchers for food for six weeks, said Maria Ramos,
administrator of the Salvation Army in
Across
Agencies assisting in the Salvation Army project are the Emergency
Services Collaborative of Immokalee, Harry Chapin Food Bank, Collier
Harvest and Six L’s.
Immokalee Helping Our People in Emergencies (IHOPE), a nonprofit,
long-term disaster recovery team that helps people prepare for and deal
with disasters, is working with other agencies to bring in additional
food supplies over the next few weeks, according to a prepared
statement.
Later this week, IHOPE has arranged for 11 palettes with 6,000 Meals
Ready to Eat (MREs) to arrive in Immokalee from Orlando, Rick Heers,
assistant pastor at Friendship Baptist Church and executive director of
IHOPE, told Ramos Tuesday morning.
Immokalee Housing & Family Services has been giving regular food
distribution to about 125 families, including its residents and other
families in the surrounding neighborhood of
“The need of necessities has been increasing significantly,” said Tricia
Yeggy, Immokalee Housing & Family Services spokeswoman.
About two months ago, the organization became a partner with the Harry
Chapin Food Bank.
The organization is helping families avoid becoming homeless, Yeggy
said.
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