Saluting Our Essential Food Workers

 They pick our produce, they stock our shelves and deliver our foods. These are the ones who are our heroes, the ones who keep us fed and healthy. They need to be honored and saluted.

The New York Times Food section did just that today. Reporters Mahira Rivers, Rachel Wharton and Aidan Gardiner interviewed several different food industry workers. There's Sandra Sibert from Sioux Falls , South Dakota who works at the Smithfield meat processing factory. Like most of her coworkers she caught the Corona virus. After almost losing her life she pushed for the company to have more sanitizers on the break room table. They did. Yet she still had to take a shower and change her clothes every day. Jane Singer is an Instacart shopper in Harrisburg ,PA There are times when she has to buy 115 items for a family while becoming close with a family with a special needs son. She was rewarded with hand sanitizer and soap.Antonia Rios Hernanadez is a farm worker from Immokalee, FLorida. She left picking fruit for landscaping because there was no recognition for her hard work. LUckily where she worked had their tables wiped down with Clorox. Chet Gordon is a long haul trucker from Greenwood Lake, New York who drove 2,500 miles a week.Again he went through protocols to keep himself and his cargo safe.

Higher ups are also an important  David Turner handles the customer hotline at King Arthur Baking Company. He's had to deal with the influx of first time bakers during this pandemic. The worst part was when there was a flour and yeast shortage and callers phoning in asking where could they get these vital ingredients. Mr. Turner had to assure them that yeast and flour were on their way to stores. Then there's Reva Hoover, an assistant customer service manager at Bashas DIne Market in Tuba City Arizona in the Navajo Nation.SInce her grocery store was not one of the top or popular ones, they had to wait for toilet paper in the middle of losing customers and workers to the virus. Some essential workers like Allegra Brown of New York who works in the Avenel, New Jersey Amazon plant are treated badly. They were lauded and even given two dollar raises only to work non stop as a picker  and getting both her and fellow coworkers raises yanked from them. Randy Petersen who is co-owner of product development at Bridgewell Agribusiness in Clackimas Oregon, also works hard, namely for twenty-four hours dealing with factories and farmers. His team runs the raw materials that are then transformed into organic oils , flours and coconut products. It is demanding work, as they give us our olive oils and baking ingredients.

Celebrate and honor our essential workers. They toil for us , making sure we're well fed. We need to make sure they're well appreciated.