Home Grown: Hundred of farmworkers get first vaccine dose

The ag community does its part during the pandemic

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - Taylor Farms has been able to vaccinate more than 1,100 people in the last eight days, but it doesn't stop there.

They will continue to vaccinate in the coming weeks before their mass second-dose event on April 6.

In today's Home Grown, farmworkers were able to get the first dose of the vaccine since the county opened it up to the 1B Tier which includes agriculture workers.

Marcus Shebl vice president of operations for Taylor Farms says these workers are at higher risk to contract the virus because not only do they work in close quarters, but often times they live in close quarters.

With the help of the National Guard and the Yuma County Public Health District, Taylor Farms was able to do the vaccine event at their facility.

"Especially with farmworkers and production plant workers, these folks are often working shoulder to shoulder. We've done a lot of stuff with social distancing, but the world isn't a perfect place," Shebl said. "For them to get sick right now, it's always a bad time, but a lot of these folks are away from their families."

About 800 of the farmworkers vaccinated are working in the project plants and roughly 300 are out harvesting in the fields.