NMSHSA Receives $57.3 Million Dollar Grant for Farm and Food Workers Relief
Washington DC – The National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association (NMSHSA) is a proud recipient of a $57.3 million dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to support the Farm and Food Workers Relief Grant Program. As an association with a network that spans across the country, NMSHSA is honored to be the third largest ofthe 15 grants awarded by the USDA. The grant program, as a continued response to the COVID-19 pandemic, awards qualified organizations who serve farm and food worker communities a grant to distribute $600 payments to eligible farmworkers, meat packing workers and/or grocery store workers. Funds are intended to cover expenses resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.
In the wake of the pandemic, it is apparent that the farmworker community was especially hit hard by COVID-19 Farmworkers were considered “essential” front line workers and were expected to continue working throughout adverse seasons, as well as in close proximity to other workers in factories and even tighter living arrangements. These working conditions allowed the virus to move rampantly throughout the farmworker community causing untold loss of income, medical issues and even death.
We are beyond honored to be named one of the 15 recipients of this USDA grant program and are ready to get started providing relief funds to Migrant and Seasonal Head Start(MSHS) farmworker families through our network of MSHS programs and the broader farmworker community. The work and contribution farmworkers provide is essential and we applaud all efforts to extend economic relief to this critical population who keeps America fed.
Cleofas Rodriguez, Jr., Executive Director of NMSHSA
Contact: Itzia Barraza-Córdova
Communications Assistant | FFWRINFO@nmshsa.org