COVID-19 Awareness Training for H-2A Visa Workers

Summary

Northeast Georgia’s largest vegetable grower is located in Rabun County and uses H-2A visa workers to harvest and process more than $3.5 million in fresh produce annually. Maintaining the health and safety of this H-2A workforce is essential in completing the task of harvesting these high value crops during COVID-19.

Situation

In July of each year, Northeast Georgia’s largest vegetable producer employ’s 175 to 225 H-2A visa workers to harvest and process vegetables including tomatoes, cabbage, squash and peppers. If COVID-19 infections had occurred within these H-2A employees, a significant portion of this $3.5 million-dollars in crops, could have spoiled in the field because they could not be harvested in time.

Response

It was determined that the best course of action would be to provide COVID-19 safety awareness training to the arriving H-2A workforce. A collaboration was formed between UGA Rabun County Extension and North Carolina State Extension to deliver this training to the Spanish speaking H2-A workforce. To minimize the potential exposure of the entire workforce to COVID-19 infections, a plan was developed to divide workers into working groups they arrived. This concept would allow small groups of 10-12 employees to work, travel, eat and live as a unit minimizing the risk of a larger outbreak should someone become ill. The COVID-19 awareness training was designed to adhere to all state and local guidelines. The training was conducted at an outdoor covered pavilion, seating was arraigned to facilitate social distancing guidelines, face coverings were mandatory and cleaning protocols were employed between each training session. At the time of the training, gatherings were limited to no more than 20 individuals by state officials. Over a two-day period, 12 one-hour training sessions were delivered to small groups of the H-2A visa workers. A total of 181 workers were trained on safety protocols related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Impact

The grower described the impact of this training as “invaluable”. This collaboration between UGA and NC State Extension allowed these COVID-19 awareness trainings, delivered in Spanish, to be provided at no cost to the grower. Anecdotal evidence provided by the grower indicates they believe the training provided by UGA and NC State Extension made the difference between an expected revenue in excess of $3.5 million in 2020 versus a significant loss due to COVID-19 illness of H-2A employees. To date, the grower reports no COVID-19 cases among the H-2A worker population and contributes this success, in part, to the collaborative efforts of UGA and NC State Extension.

Details

• Year: 2020
• Geographic Scope: Multi-State/Regional
• County: Rabun
• Location: College Station, Athens
• Program Areas:
  • Agriculture & Natural Resources