“Right now their situation–their legal status, their access to benefits–creates the conditions in which these workers are going to have to choose between going to work and making a living so that they can pay for a house, food, and childcare for their children, or staying home and taking care of themselves,” said Delgado.

Farmworkers don’t just work side by side–they often share living quarters to cut costs, doubling or tripling up in apartments, mobile homes, and houses. Many also carpool to work together, traveling long distances to reach orchards and fields in rural areas.

“You can imagine what the implications are for transmission, and their ability to stay healthy and safe, and provide for their families,” said Delgado.

Food Shortages for Farmworkers

As Americans have complied with stay-at-home orders, they’ve also rushed to stockpile groceries. One of the side effects is that farmworkers are facing an increased level of food insecurity. By the time workers finish their shifts, staples like beans and rice are sold out at grocery stores. Food pantries are also running out of food, according to farmworkers and advocates who spoke to Grist.

Farmworkers in California’s Central Valley have watched this unfold. After 15 years of picking grapes and blueberries near her home in Delano, Susana stopped working about a month ago out of fear that she would get Covid-19. Her husband, who works on a dairy farm, is exposed to similar risks. But without Susana’s salary and with three children to feed, the couple can’t afford to have him stay home.

“We never expected to go through something like this, and we’re really worried about what’s happening. We don’t go anywhere. We stay at home with our children,” Susana, who requested that her last name be withheld because she is undocumented, told Grist in Spanish.

The family of six, which also includes Susana’s mother, is now struggling to make their money last on just one income. On some days, Susana can’t afford to shop at the grocery store. She relies on local food banks, but they too run out of key staples quickly, she said. The fruit, milk, and lunch meals provided twice a week by her children’s schools go a long way toward helping the family survive.

But with school closures, low-income students who once received free breakfast and lunch meals on campus now get lunch just twice a week in areas such as Central California. To assist those in need, two schools that primarily serve the children of farmworkers in Delano are now offering breakfast to students and their parents, said Nancy Oropeza, a Delano-based organizer with the UFW Foundation. To survive, some families are now rationing or going without food, she said.

“Unfortunately that’s a fact,” Oropeza told Grist. “Maybe they had enough food for the last week, but now they’re running out.”

Organizations such Lideres Campesinas, a network of women farmworker leaders, are urging state leaders to take action, describing farmworkers as “one of the most vulnerable links in our nation’s food supply chain, labor force, and citizenry.” In a letter sent to Governor Gavin Newsom this week, the Oxnard-based organization pressed state officials to prioritize the needs of farmworkers by addressing the inadequate levels of health education on Covid-19, the lack of access to health care, and food insecurity.

The Looming Outbreak

Advocacy organizations that serve farmworkers have been closely tracking the coronavirus, which has quickly spread to low-income, densely populated areas. In California’s Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, advocates have watched with concern as Covid-19 cases have surged in cities like Santa Maria and Oxnard, where many farmworkers work and live.