Our mission has always been to serve and provide care to the underserved
Mexican migrant and seasonal farm workers (MSFWs) and their families represent the majority of patients the KLC serves. The seasonal farm worker population lives in Knights Landing and the smaller community of La Tijera year round. The migrant farm worker population lives in Knights Landing and the nearby migrant labor camps from February/March-August each year.
Apart from the MSFW population aspect, the KLC serves a rural community that faces the low resource environment that plagues most rural areas across the country. In late 2010, Knights Landing community members shared that their community had been steadily losing resources vital to its wellbeing. The first loss was the migrant clinic. Then, the public park and the teen center were closed. Afterward, the community clinic, CommuniCare, which operated from the Yolo Family Resource Center (YFRC), stopped offering services in 2008 because the small volume of patients was not enough to financially sustain the clinic. This meant that in order to see a doctor and purchase medications, many community members, mostly housewives with young children and the elderly, would need to travel 20 minutes by public bus to the city of Woodland. Woodland, also being the closest source of affordable & fresh fruits and vegetables, caused the limited bus hours to compound the obstacles to healthy living. For the farm workers that did seek medical care, the situation was an almost complete deterrent to accessing medical care, as they worked during the time that clinics in Woodland operated.
References:
- Facts about Farmworkers. 2012; http://www.ncfh.org. Accessed February 18, 2013, 2013.
- Rosenbaum S, Shin P. Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers: Health Insurance Coverage and Access to Care. Kaiser;2005.
- Larson AC. Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker Enumeration Profiles Study: California. 2000.
- Villarejo D, McCurdy SA, Bade B, Samuels S, Lighthall D, Williams D, 3rd. The health of California’s immigrant hired farmworkers. Am J Ind Med. Apr 2010;53(4):387-397.
- Nigenda G, Ruiz-Larios JA, Bejarano-Arias RM, Alcalde-Rabanal JE, Bonilla-Fernandez P. [Strategies by Mexican migrants in the USA to seek health care]. Salud publica de Mexico. Sep-Oct 2009;51(5):407-416.
- Clark PA, Surry L, Contino K. Health care access for migrant farmworkers: A paradigm for better health. The Internet Journal of Health. 2009;8(2).
- Ralston ML, Escandell X. Networks Matter: Male Mexican Migrants’ Use of Hospitals. Population Research and Policy Review. 2012:1-17.