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UF/IFAS Offering Free COVID-19 Safety Training Sessions to Help Protect Farmworkers

Migrant workers harvest corn on Uesugi Farms in Gilroy, CA on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2013.
Bob Nichols/United States Department of Agri
/
United States Department of Agri
Migrant workers harvest corn on Uesugi Farms in Gilroy, CA on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2013.

As the winter growing season approaches thousands of farmworkers are returning to Southwest Florida. Much of the fresh produce for about half of the United States is grown in this part of the state over the growing season. In order to help keep farmworkers and their families as safe as possible during the ongoing pandemic, the University of Florida/IFAS Southwest Florida Research and Education Center in Immokalee is offering free Zoom sessions to inform growers about how to best keep their agricultural workers safer from COVID-19. Click HERE to learn more and register.

To learn more we spoke with Carlene Thissen, Coordinator for the Farm Labor Supervisor Training Program, and Julia Perkins, community liaison for the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a nonprofit organization that supports farmworkers.

Andrea Perdomo is a reporter for WGCU News. She started her career in public radio as an intern for the Miami-based NPR station, WLRN. Andrea graduated from Florida International University, where she was a contributing writer for the student-run newspaper, The Panther Press, and was also a member of the university's Society of Professional Journalists chapter.