M THREE RANCHES HOLDS VIRUS VACCINATION CLINIC
Hundreds of Yolo County farmworkers receive first dose of Pfizer vaccine shot
Over 300 Yolo County farm and agriculture workers from 12 area farms received their first dose of the COVID-19 Pfizer vaccine on Tuesday afternoon.
Lines of cars surrounded the vaccination clinic for around two hours, which was hosted by M Three Ranches, located on County Road 18A in Woodland.
“It’s a great honor to have people ask to use our facilities. We want to be able to support the community where we can, and we knew how hard it was to get our employees vaccinated,” said Colin Muller, M Three Raches farm manager. “It takes a big effort.”
Yolo County health services have been doing similar vaccination clinics around Yolo County, moving around to different locations such as Clarksburg, Knights Landing, Davis, Woodland and the Capay Valley.
“We are doing about two to three of these kinds of clinics a week, and we’re moving around to different farm locations and then inviting in different farmers to come in so they can all get vaccinated in one central location,” said Kristin Weivoda, an EMS administrator for Yolo County.
Last week, around 55 M Three Ranches employees and select contractors were administered the first dose of the vaccine at their site. The ranch grows about 25 different crops across several thousand acres throughout Yolo County.
“Originally, we were just looking to get our employees vaccinated,” Muller said. “But we got lucky and ended up with an earlier appointment with Dignity Health, who came here last week. They then asked if we could provide our site for other vaccinations, and we wanted to be able to help facilitate that knowing that it’s going to be a busy planting season soon.”
Yolo County worked with the agriculture commissioner and began reaching out to farms around a week ago. They then made sure farmers signed up for an appointment and a time to arrive. Health services employees wearing burgundy jackets served as translators.
This week, clinics were planned at both M Three Ranches and Durst Organic Growers to vaccinate approximately 600 agriculture workers.
“This is protecting our essential workforce and our farm workers who might not have easy access to getting vaccinated,” Weivoda said. “It’s huge.”
Muller mentions that having his farmers and contracted workers vaccinated is a huge relief.
“We know the anxiety as employers being able to get our employees vaccinated and make sure everyone is going to have a healthy and safe work environment,” Muller said.
“We work with contractor labor to get through the planting season because it’s a big push. It’s critical for everyone to be vaccinated beforehand. This is great timing for farms around Yolo County, and it’s a great service the County of Yolo is doing, and we just wanted to help facilitate that as easily as possible.”
As of Tuesday, 63,275 vaccines had been distributed to Yolo County residents, including 43,995 first doses. For more information about the COVID-19 vaccine, visit yolocounty.org/coronavirusvaccine or call Yolo 211.
As of Tuesday, 63,275 vaccines had been distributed to Yolo County residents, including 43,995 first doses.