COVID-19 relief fund for Latinx essential workers

COVID-19 relief fund for Latinx essential workers

Risk groups.

A local grassroots organization seeks to help the latin-x community during the coronavirus pandemic by providing financial assistance.

Semillas co-founder and field director mo rodriguez cruz: "what really makes our community function and our world work being people who are working in fast food, people who are housekeepers in hotels, who are construction workers, people who do gardening or landscaping, right, and often times people who are in these jobs are latin-x.

They are undocumented.

They are people who don't have access to different kinds of supports such as unemployment, food stamps, health insurance."

Mo rodriguez cruz is the co- founder and field director of semillas .

He tells me that through a 20- thousand dollar grant from hispanics in philanthropy, they've started the community essential fund initiative.

Through this fund, they're giving one-time 500 dollar pre- paid visa debit cards to latin-x essential workers.

Semillas co-founder and field director mo rodriguez cruz: "in this moment, when we are trying to flatten the curve, we are seeking folks who don't have access to these other resources and help them in their efforts to quarantine to be able to stay at home to be able to take care of their families and their loved ones.

In june, the hispanic community saw a spike of positive covid-19 cases.

They made up over 60 percent of all cases in hamilton county.

The number has continued to trend down.

Last month, it was 35 percent and as of thursday, hispanics account for 25 percent of positive cases.

Semillas co-founder and field director mo rodriguez cruz: "a huge portion of essential workers are latin-x and not just, i want to be clear when we say latin-x it's not just brown people, but we're talking about, but people who are also afro latin-x or black, brown folks that are out there."

While the fund is geared toward a specific community, cruz says they are taking donations with hopes to reach out