The Holland Marsh Growers’ Association organized clinics for farmers and workers
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Members of Ontario’s ag community helped ensure farmers and industry workers received COVID-19 vaccines.
The Holland Marsh Growers’ Association (HMGA) collaborated with the Simcoe-Muskoka District Health Unit, the York Regional Health Unit and members of MPP Caroline Mulroney’s staff to organize pop-up vaccination and by-appointment vaccination clinics for eligible farmers and ag workers within the community.
“We had two pop-up clinics, appointments added on to some clinics at the end of the day in York and clinics with extra vaccines that were available” Jody Mott, executive director of the HMGA, told Farms.com.
In total, more than 90 per cent of the Holland Marsh’s ag workers were vaccinated. Most of them received the Moderna vaccine, Mott said.
“It was a great response and we’re still waiting on some who couldn’t make their original appointments,” she said. “It was a great team effort by everyone involved to make sure agriculture is protected going forward so the workers can start doing their important work while also being one step safer from COVID.”
HMGA photo
These vaccination efforts are an example of the great teamwork within Ontario’s ag sector, said Ernie Hardeman, minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs.
“I want to thank the Holland Marsh Growers’ Association for being so proactive in keeping our essential workers safe during COVID -19,” he said in a press release. “This remarkable milestone is further proof of the great results we can achieve when (we) work together to support the agriculture sector that feeds and nourishes Ontario every day.”
Mott wanted to give special recognition to the doctors, nurses and other frontline workers caring for patients with COVID.
Everyone in Ontario owes them a debt of gratitude, she said.
“The people who are administering the vaccines and the rest of the healthcare staff, we all have to say a big thank you to them,” she said.
As of April 28 at 10:30 a.m., Ontario is administering about 116,000 vaccines per day.
More than 365,000 Ontarians are fully vaccinated and almost 5 million total doses have been administered.