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It’s been nearly two years since a deadly mass shooting at two Half Moon Bay farms laid bare the uncomfortable truths of farmworkers’ wretched living conditions. Officials investigating the murders found families living in uninsulated shipping containers or dilapidated shacks and struggling to afford the food they labor to produce.

Those revelations sparked a surge of action from federal, state and county lawmakers to fund farmworker housing, and San Mateo County established a task force to inspect some worker housing for health and safety violations.

The Jewish community responded, too, donating thousands of dollars toward food and household necessities for farmworkers.

Despite community support and lawmakers’ good intentions, the farmworkers are no better off than before. No housing has been built. A 40-unit housing complex for senior farmworkers in Half Moon Bay — in the works since 2022 — generated so much opposition that it only won approval in June after Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened legal action.

“The saddest thing I see is that after the shooting, we saw this groundswell of support for farmworkers,” said Belinda Hernandez-Arriaga, executive director of ALAS, a nonprofit aid group based in Half Moon Bay. “It was a complete shock to us to have people now saying they don’t want this housing to be built.”

Even if it encounters no more obstacles, the senior housing complex won’t break ground until 2026 at the earliest. A county-founded project to add 47 affordable manufactured homes near Highway 92 — designed in part to house people displaced by the mass shootings — is still under construction.

Meanwhile, inflation has dramatically eroded farmworkers’ ability to purchase the food they desperately need. A jump of more than 25 percent in food prices since 2019 has put an extra strain on workers earning little more than the state’s $16 per hour minimum wage. Many undocumented workers don’t even earn that much.

“Families are telling us they have to choose whether to pay the rent, buy food or put gas in their cars,” said Hernandez-Arriaga, who founded ALAS as a grassroots project in 2011 and is herself the daughter of a farmworker. ALAS is an acronym for Ayudando Latinos A Soñar, which means “Helping Latinos to Dream.”

Not only do farmworkers subsist on poverty-level wages, they’re often deprived of the wages they’re owed, said Ray Mueller, a San Mateo County supervisor whose district includes Half Moon Bay.

“Because people are undocumented, they’re vulnerable, and they’re often taken advantage of because of their vulnerability,” he said.

Inflation has dramatically eroded farmworkers’ ability to purchase the food they desperately need.

It has been a hard year for Jews. We are traumatized by the surge in ugly antisemitism following the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, and we’re deeply pained to see so many people suffering in Israel and Gaza. 

But we can’t turn our backs on those who are needy. Our tradition obligates us to help, and our hearts ache to see the same people who toil to bring us food go without.

At this time of year when our resolutions for tzedakah are renewed, here is an opportunity for you to make a difference. Last year, the Bay Area Jewish community displayed enormous compassion for farmworkers, donating 1,000 Safeway gift cards to families in need.

At Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills, our FarmMitzvah Task Force is asking that you again open your hearts and help.

Like last year, we are collecting $15 Safeway gift cards for ALAS to distribute to farmworkers, who use the gift cards to buy items ALAS and other aid groups don’t supply — extra protein for healthier meals and much-needed items like baby formula, toilet paper, dish soap and laundry detergent. Although you may donate as few or as many Safeway gift cards as you like, ALAS asks that each card be for $15 to ensure it can distribute one to everyone it serves.

Here is how you can help:

Bring gift cards to Erev Shabbat services at Beth Am between Oct. 4 and Oct. 25.

Attend Erev Shabbat services at Beth Am at 6:15 p.m. Oct. 25, when we are collecting gift cards and featuring Hernandez-Arriaga of ALAS. She will discuss farmworker struggles, with a particular focus on senior farmworkers who are in desperate need of affordable housing and more.

Send a check to ALAS in care of the Beth Am office at 26790 Arastradero Road
Los Altos Hills, CA 94022. You can also drop gift cards off at the Beth Am office.

The gift cards do more than provide financial relief, said Hernandez-Arriaga.

“I can’t say what it means to have people from outside our community holding us in a way that is generous and loving,” she said. “What’s really meaningful is the emotional support, the feeling that people care for us.”