One grocery worker, Yok Yen Lee, a door greeter at the Walmart in Quincy, Massachusetts, continued to report to work up until days before she died from COVID-19. “We’re working a lot of hours, too, to try to make up for the meat shortage.” “I'd just like to see them keep us safe,” Dennis Medbourn, a worker at the Tyson plant in Logansport, Indiana, where three coworkers he knew have died from COVID-19 complications, told BuzzFeed News. Some workers in the chain still do not get sick pay, forcing them to choose between spreading the virus or missing out on paychecks - between feeding your family or protecting their own. Across the country, from fields to packhouses to slaughterhouses to grocery stores, companies failed to require masks, build protective barriers, or arrange testing until after outbreaks had spread through the workforce. But what may seem safer for consumers can still be deadly for the low-paid, often immigrant workers who make up America’s sprawling food supply chains. Worried about putting themselves and restaurant staffers at risk, many Americans have turned to home cooking as a safer, more ethical option. packhouse in Yakima Valley, the Tyson plant in Indiana, and the Walmart in Massachusetts - around 1,100 employees have tested positive for COVID-19, and at least four have died, according to a BuzzFeed News investigation based on government documents, company memos, and interviews with around 50 workers, managers, local officials, and labor advocates.

The pasta would have been stacked by grocery clerks whose employer was slow to close down for a deep cleaning after workers got sick, and to inform the local health department and customers of the growing outbreak.įrom those three workplaces alone - the Allan Bros. The ribs would have been sliced and packed by employees at a pork processing plant - like the Tyson Foods facility in Indiana that stayed open for weeks, even as the virus spread through its staff. packhouse, which for weeks failed to follow federal COVID-19 safety guidelines - even after employees started falling ill. The fruit would then be sorted into boxes in an Allan Bros. If you shop at a Walmart Supercenter, in, say, Massachusetts, the apples you’d buy would have been picked by workers in Washington state’s Yakima Valley, who live in a crowded labor camp with few protections in place. Take a typical summer feast: tangy ribs, a side of creamy pasta salad, and a slice of freshly baked apple pie. How about a cookout? It's a traditional, low-key summer celebration - but amid the nation's growing outbreak, even a simple home-cooked meal comes at an exorbitant price.Ī BuzzFeed News investigation reveals the extent to which the virus - and the nation’s inadequate response to it - has infected, sickened, and even killed workers up and down the nation's food supply chains as they work to keep our refrigerators full.

After months of stress, Americans have been looking forward to the pre– COVID-19 pleasures of a (socially distanced) 4th of July.

July 4th office food