Mobile services center brings essential tech to coastside farmworkers
HALF MOON BAY -- We often hear about the "digital divide" preventing some people from accessing modern technology and among them are farmworkers. Sunday, in Half Moon Bay, a new mobile resource center was unveiled that will bring those who produce our food into the modern era.
The San Mateo coast is farm country. At this time of year, the Brussels sprouts fields in Half Moon Bay sit quiet and empty while, during the harvest, the area is bustling with farmworkers. Joaquin Jimenez works with them but says they live far different lives from most of us.
"They see a physician maybe every two years, every three years, every five years. There are farmworkers that haven't seen a dentist in over ten years," Jimenez said.
Jimenez is outreach director for a nonprofit social services group called ALAS (Ayudando Latinos A Soñar) and, about 18 months ago, he had a big idea. Sunday, his vision became reality as a huge, double-decker bus pulled onto the street in front of ALAS headquarters.
Called "Equity Express," it's a brightly-colored custom farmworker services center on wheels. ALAS partnered with life science companies Genentech, Gilead and AbbVie to put all the services needed into a bus that can be driven to the fields.
"When we conceived the project, we realized we were going to need a ton of space," said Genentech transportation director Andy Jefferson. "A normal single-deck bus wasn't going to work so we went out looking for a double deck."
The lower deck of the bus features two small spaces for private tele-health appointments. On the top deck there is a room devoted to mental health therapy, something Jimenez says is desperately needed.
"Ninety-eight percent of the farmworker community suffers from depression -- 98 percent!" he said. "How do we address that? We bring resources to them, directly to them."
Perhaps the most important feature is Internet/Wi-Fi capability. Many farmworkers have no access to the internet at all so the bus features space with a laptop computer and big-screen monitor so classes can be held on everything from health practices to cultural arts.
"Technology and Wi-Fi is a luxury for our farmworker community and very hard to access," said Dr. Belinda Hernandez-Arriaga, ALAS founder and executive director. "So, being able to do things like tele-health, being able to do Zoom, visiting families in conference calls, doesn't really happen that easy as it does for you and I. Where everything has changed and pivoted, they're still really struggling with that."
The plan is for the bus to travel five days a week, making regular stops at farms from Pescadero to Pacifica. Now that the Equity Express has been created -- to the tune of $250,000 -- ALAS is seeking other corporate sponsors to help support and sustain the project and, maybe, add a second bus. For Jimenez, it's a dream come true.
"So now we are connecting the world to farmworkers. The people that feed us. We don't feed them, they feed us," he said. "So you can see how dreams and goals will happen. They're happening. They're happening right here in Half Moon Bay!"