Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack recently announced that a $700 stimulus check would be issued as a competitive grant.
In order to assist workers in the meatpacking industry and farmers with safety costs and health issues caused by the pandemic, the Farm and Food Workers Relief grant program was created.
President Marc Perrone, President of the United Food and Commercial Workers International, and Executive Director Diana Tellefson Torres held a press call to announce the news.
The organization has also set aside a sum of $20 million for the purpose of recognizing the hardships and costs that grocery workers bear on a daily basis.
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Farmers Get Stimulus Checks
Besides being funded by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, the stimulus check program will also be a part of the Build Back Better program.
This is intended to aid in recovery from and responding to the pandemic.
Farmers and meatpacking workers will be able to receive relief from the expenses they incurred as a result of the pandemic under the program.
As part of this relief, costs related to the COVID pandemic will be defrayed.
This includes the cost of PPE, the cost of dependent care, or the cost of establishing quarantines.
While celebrating the country’s achievements on Labor Day, Vilsack said that both farmworkers and meatpackers have been facing severe challenges that have been unprecedented and that they must be recognized.
Therefore, the stimulus check grant program is merely another mechanism used by the administration to ease the suffering of the victims of the pandemic.
According to reports, UFW Foundation workers worked tirelessly to support legislation aimed at developing a stimulus check program for farmworkers.
