Neza Xiuhtecutli of Farmworker Association of Florida accepting 200 hand-sewn face masks donated by Days for Girls
Photo by K. Pagan at the location of “Brave Harvest” community garden in NW Gainesville

At the end of summer 2021, the Delta variant of COVID-19 surged in Florida. Consequently, the need for face masks soared with it. When Growth Management Senior Planner Kathleen Pagan received a request from the Farmworker Association of Florida, she knew who to contact.

Specifically, the nonprofit Days for Girls has grown from a Girl Scout project into a community effort to supply sanitary supplies to girls worldwide. Under the leadership of Radha Selvester, the group mobilizes sewing volunteers. Therefore, they were able to respond to the urgent need to protect farmworkers by sewing and donating 200 face masks.

General Coordinator Neza Xiuhtecutli (pictured left) accepted the masks on behalf of the Farmworker Association of Florida. “Dear Radha,”Xiuhtecutli wrote afterward, “thank you and the whole Days for Girls team for your generosity. Those masks will help Florida farmworkers to continue to protect themselves from the spread of COVID-19 and encourage them to do so despite some of the misinformation they are seeing day-to-day.”

“Keep safe everyone,” adds Pagan, an active member of the FSC-GNV. “We can BEAT COVID-19 with teamwork and relying on our public health leaders to provide reliable information and sound policy.”

Thank you to Kathleen Pagan for providing this information and photo.

Community Members Team Up to Fill Farmworkers’ Face Mask Need

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