‘I feel relieved.’ Foster Farms vaccinates 1,000 workers at Livingston chicken plant
About 1,000 workers received COVID-19 vaccines Tuesday at the Foster Farms chicken plant in Livingston, the heart of the poultry giant’s business.
“I feel relieved; I feel more comfortable,” said line supervisor Hilda Paz after getting her Pfizer shot around noon. “I hope this is a step going forward (and) everything goes back to normal.”
Foster Farms invited the media to the clinic to showcase its part in protecting the food industry workers at the core of the San Joaquin Valley economy.
It employs about 12,500 people processing turkey in Turlock and chicken in Livingston, Fresno, Porterville, Oregon, Washington and Louisiana.
The vaccinations started early last month with about 1,000 chicken workers in Fresno, who already have returned for their second dose. About 600 turkey employees in Turlock have had one dose.
All of the roughly 3,000 people in Livingston will get their first shot by Friday and the second in late March.
Foster Farms is working with county health departments and pharmacies to deliver the vaccines. Tuesday’s event involved pharmacists from Save Mart grocery stores, conducted in a converted break room.
The company as of last month reported that 21 of its California employees have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic emerged last March.
Foster Farms has required masks, social distancing and other safeguards in the plants. This is on top of the long-time measures against salmonella and other food-borne illnesses, including sanitation and protective clothing.
Workers are paid for the time they spend getting the vaccines, which are voluntary and free. Those who speak mainly Spanish or Punjabi can be assisted in these languages.
“We value them,” said Ira Brill, vice president of communications at Foster Farms. “This is a family-owned company.”
Max and Verda Foster founded the business in 1939 at a small farm west of Waterford. It is now the top-selling poultry brand in the West.
Brill said Foster Farms continues frequent COVID-19 testing for employees, totaling about 130,000 samples over the past six months. The positive rate has not exceeded 1%, he said.
Cesar Arias is superintendent of the portion of the Livingston complex that produces chicken for restaurants and other food-service customers. He, too, got a vaccine Tuesday.
“A lot of people are excited about it,” he said. “They’ve been asking about the vaccine for a while now ... As essential workers, I’m glad that Foster Farms was able to provide that to us.”
State Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, dropped by the clinic and was impressed.
“I think it’s absolutely important to make these vaccines available where people are,” he said.
Gray added that he has urged state officials to ease the vaccine shortage in the Valley, which “gets to the fact that we are under-served in our medical infrastructure.”
This story was originally published March 3, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
