As public and private agencies come together to help the Half Moon Bay mass shooting victims' families and the farmworker community as a whole, some community advocates say the attention is long overdue for a workforce that has operated in the shadows for so long.
Mountain Mushroom Farm, one of the two sites where the shooting took place, is trying to get its operation going again but under much more transparent circumstances.
Supervisor Ray Mueller on Thursday toured the facility and posted pictures online showing what he called "deplorable, heartbreaking living conditions." He then called for action to raise the quality of life for farmworkers.
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One aspect of the suffering workforce revealed following the shooting is the significant number of Chinese migrant workers.
San Mateo County has arranged for the Chinese laborers to meet with the president of the county’s chapter of the National Alliance on Mental illness (NAMI) and a prominent psychiatrist who founded Stanford Mental Health for Asians Research and Treatment program.
"What I am surprised, disappointed, shocked and startled to see is the lack of resources that are available to them and especially in the culturally appropriate resources for mental health," NAMI Board President Virginia Chang Kiraly said.
The Chinese laborers will meet with them Friday morning. They were supposed to meet on Thursday, but that was canceled because at least two of the workers have COVID-19.
"The damage is huge and I think that what we want to do in the short term is some psychological first aid," psychiatrist Dr. Rona Hu said. "In the longer term, making sure they have access to mental health care."
