Vintners & Growers group joins La Luz outreach efforts
The Sonoma Valley Vintners and Growers Alliance and La Luz Center have formed a partnership to provide more access to services for wine industry workers and their families.
“The face of our wine producing workforce has changed,” said La Luz Executive Director Juan Hernandez. Migrant workers have essentially been replaced by people who live here, he said, most of them with their families. “We see our role as facilitating this process by providing resources for education, healthcare and financial literacy — helping this community get established and thrive here.”
La Luz offers day and evening English classes at three locations in the valley; a pre-kindergarten early learners program; five levels of computer classes including Excel and computer maintenance; classes on household budgeting; access to many health related services, and now some employment assistance and even small business loans.
Its recent expansion into a Family Resource Center at El Verano School was a big move toward reaching out to even more families and providing services on the school site.
The SVVGA-La Luz partnership is a further step to reach workers and connect them to La Luz services.
The wine industry could not exist without its workforce, said SVVGA Executive Director Maureen Cottingham. “We want to do everything in our power to enhance the lives of these workers and their families,” she said. “We want them to take full advantage of the programs La Luz works so hard to provide. It’s for the benefit of all of us in the Valley.”
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It is very commendable that the SVVGA finally realizes that its business is not “sustainable” without workers. Maybe now the V’s & G’s will join the rest of the community in insisting that wine and tourism workers be paid a decent living wage ASAP and have access to affordable housing. It’s tough to learn english, computer skills and so forth while the entire family is living in their car. Household budgeting skills can be pretty useless if workers don’t have enough money to budget in the first place. They certainly don’t help much when workers have to choose between paying the rent and eating. So if it was really serious about helping its workforce, SVVGA would double everyone’s pay right now as a show of good faith.