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A Surprising Catalyst for Change

Farmworker holding lettuce

Discovering New Opportunities to Support Food and Farm Workers in San Luis Obispo County

In 2023, UWSLOC began administering a program for the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture which provides COVID relief payments for food and farm workers in SLO County. We have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with each of the 4,000 applicants as we enroll them.

In addition to injecting $2.8 million into our local economy, this program has had another tremendous positive benefit. The personal contact required by the program’s enrollment process has allowed us to hear directly from a significant segment of our county’s population that is often hidden and without a voice.

Food and farm workers are an important part of the SLO County economy. Our agriculture businesses rely on them, our local retail businesses benefit from their patronage, and they are involved across our social spectrum from education to religion.

We have learned valuable information about how our social services network functions across SLO County and the steps we can take to improve and expand services.

Here’s a sampling of learnings and actions to date:

  • Food and Farm Workers are frequently unaware of the extent of services available to them.
  • When there is awareness of services, families can feel uncomfortable coming forward and utilizing programs.
  • Better collaboration between community impact organizations and government agencies can help connect people with the broad range of services our community offers.
  • UWSLOC partners with organizations and shares information for many programs available to this population, such as CAPSLO, SLO County UndocuSupport, EDD, Crisis Support Services, and more.
  • When UWSLOC goes into the field (sometimes literally!) to meet with farm workers, partner organizations often accompany us to provide their services as well.
  • UWSLOC will soon debut a set of financial literacy seminars for farm workers based on feedback we received.

SLO County has a valuable resource in our food and farm worker neighbors. As they contribute to our economy, they also teach us how we can be increasingly responsive to all the people who make our county a successful place to live and work!