One of the charities that is supported by the Monterey Location of the Order of Malta Western Association is the Falge Farmworkers Program. The purpose of the program is to procure and distribute food, blankets, and clothing to poor and needy farm workers and their families in Monterey County.

Recently, our Knights and Dames, and a Provisional Member participated in the program’s summer distribution. Altogether, there were 19 people working together to make this distribution possible. Due to soaring prices and the back-to-school process being right around the corner, the Monterey Location decided to go all out this distribution and provide families with an expanded distribution in appreciation of the hard work being done by these farmers and their families.

When it was all said and done, the volunteers packed and delivered a total of 4,566 pounds of food. This made it the largest grocery distribution outside of Christmas. Due to feedback from the farm workers, the Falge Farmworkers program decided to add some special items on top of just food to the items being distributed. Every family received a large amount of laundry detergent, which can normally be an expensive burden on struggling families.

Nearly 30% of the households that are helped by the Falge Farmworkers Program have very young children using diapers. Diapers were donated to all those households to help with that very expensive grocery item as well.

A final personal and exciting addition to the distribution packets was a soccer ball that was given to every household in two camps that had children.  The other two camps will get soccer balls in August due to supply chain issues.

Finally, each family received an envelope with a $100 gift card from Target Stores that can be used for clothing or school supplies for the upcoming school year, or for whatever needs are greatest in each household.