CIW’s Gerardo Reyes on MSNBC “Into America” podcast: “The people that place the food on the table of every family deserve better.”

Month of June sees national media attention turn to the disaster unfolding in CIW’s backyard, as COVID-19 cases skyrocket in Immokalee, rest of Florida…

For people living in Immokalee, the month of June was like no other in living memory. As the deadly coronavirus pandemic tightened its grip on the farmworker community, and increased testing — finally — revealed the depth and breadth of the virus’s reach, it became painfully clear that life in this small agricultural community would never be the same after this summer of sickness, fear, and confusion. For some, it was the loss of a loved one. For others it was their own struggle with the still mysterious symptoms of COVID-19. But by the end of June, you would be hard-pressed to find a single soul living in Immokalee who had been spared the pain and sadness of the growing outbreak.

And Immokalee was hardly alone, as Florida became a new epicenter of the pandemic on the national level. The graph below, from the New York Times, speaks volumes:

For the first three months of the pandemic, and even at its early apex in April, the daily count of new cases hovered around the 2,000 mark — the Y axis needed no adjustment from March through the end of May. But with the lessening of the lockdown came the onslaught, and the graph-makers at the Times were forced to adjust the parameters several times over the month of June, with new cases now regularly topping 10,000 per day, with no end in sight. And Immokalee, with the highest number of cases by zip code in the entire state, stands at the epicenter of the epicenter as we turn the page on the calendar and begin the dog days of summer.

This unprecedented crisis naturally brought national media attention to Immokalee, and we have selected five of the best stories from national outlets reporting on the pandemic. At the top of today’s post is an excellent video from the beginning of June, when the dimensions of the crisis were just beginning to come into focus, produced by Soledad O’Brien’s new project, “Matter of Fact”. Be sure to check out that video for an excellent summary of the situation in Immokalee and its possible impact on the food system.

Next up is an in-depth report from the New York Times, titled “Florida’s Coronavirus Spike is Ravaging Migrant Farmworkers”. Here is an extended excerpt (the full article is well worth checking out if you haven’t read it yet):

Florida’s agricultural communities have become cradles of infection, fueling a worrying new spike in the state’s daily toll in new infections, which has hit new records in recent days. The implications go far beyond Florida: Case numbers in places like Immokalee are swelling just as many farmworkers are migrating up the Eastern Seaboard for the summer harvest.

As is the case with agricultural communities around the country, Florida’s farming regions have a high degree of built-in risk. Fruit and vegetable pickers toil close to each other in fields, ride buses shoulder-to-shoulder and sleep in cramped apartments or trailers with other laborers or several generations of their families.

Immokalee has a small federally funded clinic, but does not have its own hospital. […]

Click here to catch up on more national coverage of COVID-19's spread across Immokalee.

Coalition of Immokalee Workers

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