Main fundraiser photo

Facemasks for Farmworkers Now!

We surpassed our goals! Thank you all for your generosity and words of support - through this GoFundMe combined with private donors who reached out directly after seeing the campaign, we raised over $17,000 to purchase masks for farm workers in fire impacted regions! We partnered with amazing farm worker organizations like Lideres Campesinas who helped us get the masks beyond even our reach. We’ve delivered nearly 10,000 masks for immediate distribution in Sonoma, Napa and Madera Counties. We’re working on organizing distribution in Southern California next. We continue to have people reaching out to donate masks directly, both for fires and for COVID-19, and we will continue to distribute them. 

We are closing this campaign for now - we send you all so much gratitude! If you'd like to donate outside this campaign, please feel free to reach out to the Nuestra Comunidad . Thank you again!




Closed Campaign Details:

Protect Farm workers: Face masks for Farm workers Today!

Our Ask is simple - the smoke from the recent wildfires has made the air unhealthy to breath for farm workers and we need help getting them the protection they need to stay safe. Every dollar you give goes towards protecting a farm worker by ensuring they have access to proper protective face masks during unprecedented air pollution caused by wildfire.

You Can Help! This is a grassroots effort to get masks to the people who need them most and who are putting their lives on the line to keep us fed.  Your gift today goes directly to offset the costs of getting N95 and KN95 masks to farm workers now. 

Who are we? We are a team of majority Latinx women that are working through our organizations Nuestra Comunidad and Farmer Campus. This year we teamed up  to build a course on Disaster Resilience for farm workers, but with this disaster upon us, we realized that the basics of getting masks to farm workers is even more urgent. We are purchasing masks and are working in our free time using our already limited resources to meet this need. We believe that farm workers deserve to be treated with respect and dignity, and we know with your help we can do the right thing.


More on the issue: Amid the pandemic and heat waves, wildfire season is also fully upon us and farm workers are putting their health on the line to harvest our food - this photo is a still of a recent video  of what their work day looks like. Those of us in impacted areas can stay inside to avoid the smoke, heat and ash. But not everyone has that option - thousands of farm workers across the state of California continue to work in polluted air and labor in hazardous working conditions without proper protection.

The air is so bad they are having to work in the middle of the night in order to get their jobs done more safely. No one should have to work in these conditions - but especially not without such basics as a mask.

Though the companies that hire them are legally supposed to supply these, a recent United Farm Worker survey found that 85% of farm workers are still without masks. Big Ag needs to step up their efforts to protect their workers. But, farm workers don’t have time to wait - they are in the smoke as we speak, so we’re not waiting either. We have been going out at dawn to find workers on their way to farms and vineyards, and putting masks directly into their hands. But we can’t do it alone - please join our grassroots efforts to get farm workers the protection they deserve right now.

Current Fundraising Goal and Impact: We raised our initial $5K to go towards covering the costs of our current emergency efforts!  But we have now partnered with other amazing organizations like Lideres Campesinas who will help us get masks out even further, so we're doubling our goal  to $10,000!  Each mask costs about $1 and will help us cover the costs of purchasing face masks for the current wildfire crisis.  Your money will go directly to Nuestra Comunidad, a nonprofit, who will be doing wholesale purchasing of masks. We will then be directly handing them out to farm workers as well as distributing the purchased masks to justice-based farm worker organizations who will help get them to farm workers in wildfire areas beyond our own network. Not a single dollar goes towards overhead - this will be dollar for dollar for masks.

Keep in mind there are an estimated 500,000- 800,000 farm workers in California! Any money raised past $8,000 will go towards stockpiling masks throughout fire prone regions in California so we can be ready, and so more farm workers will be prepared, when the next fires hit. 

Want to join us in making a difference? Giving in a time like this, when it feels like the world is ending, is a small way to make things just a little better. Thanks in advance for your contribution to this cause that means so much to me.

More information about us:

Nuestra Comunidad:
Nuestra Comunidad (NC) passionately believes in improving the health, safety and well-being of our community. Our purpose is to equip the public with vital information, and hands on training, in the use of the 9-1-1 emergency response system, disaster preparedness and personal safety. Our goal is to bring the latest information and training to both our English and Spanish speaking community members.

Lideres Campesinas: With representatives in each California county,  Lideres Campesinas works on the ground with campesinas across the state. Their principal goal is to form a network of communication throughout the state of California to promote the development of a united effort between campesinas and other groups who advocate the rights of the campesina community.

Farmer Campus: An online Hub for Agricultural Education. Current online courses include Fire Resilience for Farmers, Climate Resilience via Agroecology, and Disaster Preparedness for Farm Workers. We aim to provide critical online education, connection and resources to farmers - without having them leave their farms.

Our Team

Donations 

  • Annika Wells
    • $10 
    • 3 yrs

Fundraising team (5)

Katie Brimm
Organizer
Raised $1,075 from 14 donations
Santa Rosa, CA
Nuestra Comunidad
 
Registered nonprofit
Donations are typically 100% tax deductible in the US.
Natalia Pinzon Jimenez
Team member
Raised $565 from 8 donations
Kelsey Fenn
Team member
Raised $321 from 9 donations
Alma Bowen
Team member
Raised $75 from 2 donations
Ana Galvis
Team member
This team raised $5,617 from 76 other donations.

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