Giving Compass' Take:

• Christine Herman, at Harvest Public Media, explains how clinics like the one in Champaig, Illinois are offering migrant farmworkers free COVID tests.

• What can we do to support and establish response efforts that mirror the goals of these clinics?

• Look for more resources like this one that aim to support migrant farmworkers during COVID-19.

Maricel Mendoza is familiar with the work migrant and seasonal farmworkers do. Growing up, her family traveled from Texas to central Illinois every year for her parents’ jobs as contractors with a large seed company.

“All of my parents’ siblings were migrants, my grandparents were migrants,” Mendoza says. “So it’s just something that was the norm for me.”

Today, Mendoza directs a small clinic in Champaign, Illinois, that provides basic medical services to hundreds of farmworkers in east-central Illinois. Some live in the area, while many come from southern U.S. states and Mexico to work in the summer and fall.

This year, in addition to conducting health risk assessments and discussing medical and other needs, the clinic is working with companies and state and local health departments to test migrant farmworkers for COVID-19 upon arrival. The goal is to clamp down on cases before they spread.

There’s a lack of data regarding COVID-19 among the estimated two million migrant and seasonal farmworkers in the U.S. The National Center for Farmworker Health has compiled reports from media outlets and partner organizations documenting more than 3,000 cases of COVID-19 among farmworkers across 15 states.

Mendoza says news of outbreaks in other areas concerns her, but she hopes that proactive measures will allow Illinois’ farmworkers to be spared as they perform essential work during the pandemic.

Mendoza says lately, it’s been taking five days to get test results back from the state’s public health lab. She worries the delay may allow COVID-19 to spread.

“It’s always a concern that we're not doing enough, or don't have enough resources, or what can we do to do better? We're constantly having that conversation,” she says.

Read the full article about clinics for migrant farmworkers during COVID-19 by Christine Herman at Harvest Public Media.