Nonprofit wants to help ag workers get pandemic grant

Agriculture and livestock workers in this region may have a chance to have some COVID-19 expenses reimbursed by the federal government through the USDA Farm and Food Workers Relief Program which will be offering $600 to them later this month if they qualify.

Teri Peters, community programs manager for Centro de la Familia, a Utah-based non-profit, said her organization is helping people get signed up and will be in Havre by the end of the month.

Peters visited Havre Tuesday to start gauging local interest and need for the program, saying she hopes to get at least 100 eligible people contacting them.

The one-time grant offers a flat $600 to any frontline agriculture or livestock worker, 16 years or older, who has worked in the industry between Jan. 27, 2020 and May 11, 2023, as long as they can be at the event in Havre with a picture ID, including name, photo and birthdate, and proof of employment during that window.

The best IDs to bring are government issued passports, driver’s license, or state or tribe issued photo IDs. She said foreign IDs are also acceptable if they have the needed information.

Peters said proof of employment can include paystubs, provided the name on it matches the one on their ID, contracts or W2s, though if that W2 is from 2023 they should be accompanied by a secondary document proving the employment was between Jan. 1 and May 11 of that year.

She said eligible work in agriculture includes planting, tending, harvesting, packing, grading and sorting, and operation of farm machinery on crop farms, nurseries or greenhouses.

Eligible livestock work includes, tending animals, milking cows, caring for poultry or operating machinery in livestock or poultry operations.

The program is focused on frontline workers, she said, so management and administrative positions are ineligible, as are operation owners.

Peters said the program is part of the federal government’s COVID-19 relief efforts, and one they have been offering to their organization’s typical coverage area of Utah, Colorado and Nevada for a year, but they found recently that no one was really offering it in Montana and they wanted to fix that.

She said they know the state relies on agriculture as its primary industry and they want to make sure workers in that industry are given the help they need as so many are still reeling from the effects of the pandemic, a crisis they were vital to the U.S. weathering.

“During the pandemic, our farm and food workers kept us all going. Right? And it’s about time to show them some appreciation,” she said.

She said the grant is per individual, not per household or per family, so those living in large multi-generation households, as many agricultural workers do, won’t have to worry about that being a limitation.

Peters said she hopes this program won’t just be direct financial assistance for workers, but a morale boost for people who get paid very little on average.

She said people have been very appreciative of the program so far, and she and her colleagues feel good being able to give them the assistance they deserve to help deal with the fallout of the pandemic.

Peters said they are going to spend this week in various communities around Montana gauging interest and need, but Havre is their first stop, one she hopes is central enough to northern Montana that they can help as many people as they can.

Because they need to examine documents in person, she said, they need to physically go to the communities they are trying to get this money to, and because the state, especially its northern tier, is so large and sparsely populated, they need to choose their locations carefully, as they have limited resources.

She said people interested in the program who think they are eligible can contact them and they will be put on a list so appointments can be made once they have a date and time locked in, likely in the last week of March, and applicants will need to travel to Havre that day.

She said she knows that is a substantial drive for a lot of people, and she hopes Havre is a spot that people can get to without too much trouble.

“We really didn’t want to miss out on northern Montana,” Peters said.

In their own service area, she said, they have signed up over 2,000 people for the program, but they’ve only been approved to provide assistance to 300 applications in northern Montana, though that number may go up if they get enough people interested that they can do more.

She said the application process is very simple but it will take between one and six weeks for a third party to verify documents so they can approve the money.

She said anyone who isn’t sure if they qualify, or has questions can contact their organization and they can help them. People can call 801-521-4473 or email [email protected] .