Dallas Morning News reporter, Dianne Solis, highlights her experience with Dallas Area Interfaith and DAI leader Fr. Jesus Belmontes of San Juan Diego Catholic Church.

SVP Dallas Workshop: Engaging the Media During COVID-19, Dallas Morning News

[Excerpts]

...workers who labor shoulder to shoulder at the plant and others fear the contagion has spread to more people in the Dallas area. Sick workers who do not get themselves tested could spread the virus when they are out and about or when they return to the plant.

“The workers at these plants are essential workers, especially now,” said auxiliary Bishop Greg Kelly of the Dallas Catholic Diocese. “They help keep the food supply chain intact for all of us… They are particularly vulnerable because of the kind of work that they do and in greater need of protection at this time. Just as the state has done elsewhere in Texas, they should require testing of their employees for the safety of all."

....

Josephine Lopez-Paul, an organizer for Dallas Area Interfaith, said she is organizing a plan to assist those families. “It’s in our collective interest to protect these workers,” Lopez-Paul said. “The state also has a responsibility to these workers.”

[Photo Credit: Ryan Michalesko, Dallas Morning News]

Experts, Activists Want Virus Testing at Meat-Processing Plants to Prevent Community Spread, Dallas Morning News [pdf]

[Excerpt]

At St. Luke’s Catholic Church in Irving, Rev. Ernesto Esqueda said the church will support the workers with food and other needs during the pandemic.

“We are all walking on the same path, and our close ties mean we help and will continue to help so that these persons don’t feel forgotten or abandoned,” Rev. Esqueda said. “As a church, we work for them and with them.”

The priest said the church is also working with the nonprofit Dallas Area Interfaith and government authorities to find help for workers and parishioners.

One church leader in the interfaith group, Cecilia Avalos, said many of the Brakebush workers are vulnerable Spanish-speaking immigrants, and she knew of a worker who quit when the plant wouldn’t allow the worker to self-quarantine after exposure to an infected worker.

“There is such an outcry among people,” Avalos said.

[Photo by  Dianne Solis and Imelda Garcia]

40 Workers At Irving Poultry Plant Test Positive for Covid-19, The Dallas Morning News

40 Empleados de Planta Procesadora de Pollo Dan Positivo a COVID-19, Dallas Al Día

[Excerpt]

On a recent Saturday, the priest passed out bags of eggs, beans, rice, tomatoes and chicken and sprinted like a grocery store clerk to families waiting in a long line of vehicles at San Juan Diego Catholic Church. Catholic Charities of Dallas had set up a mobile food pantry in the church parking lot. The charity has more than doubled food deliveries since the virus hit North Texas and left so many unemployed or with reduced work.

The following day at the downtown Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Padre Jesus joined auxiliary Bishop Greg Kelly in celebrating Easter Mass in Spanish by video. Padre Jesus delivered a special message about a pause on evictions and said if anyone was threatened, they should call the nonprofit Dallas Area Interfaith, a group both priests work with.

If anyone has symptoms of the coronavirus, the priest said, they should go to a testing site. “Don’t have fear in going to these centers,” he said in a message slipped in before the final Alleluia of the Mass.

Wednesday, in English, Padre Jesus testified, by video, before the Dallas City Council in favor of getting emergency funds to help immigrants who aren’t eligible for federal relief funds because someone in the household is undocumented.

“We must direct funds to help the most vulnerable in our city,” Padre Jesus said....

[Photo Credit: Ashley Landis, Dallas Morning News]

Catholic Priest Tends to Most Vulnerable in Pandemic: the Uninsured and Enemployed Dallas Morning News [pdf]