Encore: Investigating COVID Deaths at Foster Farms

We’re reprising an investigation from The California Report’s Central Valley reporter, Alex Hall, that recently earned a National Murrow award for News Documentary. In 2020, California’s Foster Farms became the site of one of the nation’s deadliest COVID-19 outbreaks at a meat or poultry plant. Hall spent a year and a half talking to spouses and family members of workers who spent decades at the company’s chicken-processing plants. She found that hundreds of Foster Farms workers tested positive for the virus in 2020. Sixteen people died and at least 20 others were hospitalized. Hall’s investigation shows that as plants stayed open to maintain the food supply, and workers got sick from COVID-19, Foster Farms didn’t always give a complete picture of the problem to health officials, state regulators and their own employees. We meet families who lost loved ones who worked at Foster Farms – families who are grieving, struggling financially, and trying to make sense of what happened. We’ll also include an update on the fact that Foster Farms was recently sold to a private equity firm.

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