April 1, 2014

At Natividad Medical Foundation’s Annual Meeting Celebration, The Agricultural Leadership Council presented the foundation with a $350,000 check, bringing TALC’s total contributions to date to $1,172,550.

“TALC is proud to support Monterey County’s safety net hospital, a crucial resource for agricultural workers and their families,” said John D’Arrigo, president and CEO of D’Arrigo Bros. Co. of CA, who founded TALC in 2010. “Over the past five years, farm families and the agricultural community have joined forces to truly change lives and save lives by raising funds to purchase more than 70 pieces of critical medical equipment and fund medical interpreting services for Natividad.”

At the annual celebration, Natividad Medical Foundation presented its 2014 Hero Award to Driscoll’s Chairman and CEO J. Miles Reiter, who is a founding member of TALC, in recognition of Driscoll’s $107,700 in gifts to support cross-cultural initiatives, including a $75,000 donation earmarked for the new Indigenous Interpreting + business. “From the beginning when John D’Arrigo rallied the Salinas Valley agricultural community to form TALC, it has been our intent to help Natividad get the tools it needs to improve the quality of health care for agricultural workers and their families,” said Reiter. “The new Indigenous Interpreting+ business will help ensure health care is accessible and useful for farm workers.”

Natividad’s newly launched Indigenous Interpreting+ business is a community and medical interpreting program specializing in indigenous languages from Mexico and Central and South America. Mixteco, Zapotec, Triqui and Chatino are languages spoken in the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Guerrero and Puebla. All four of these indigenous languages are among the top ten most common languages spoken by patients at Natividad Medical Center.

“California’s Central Coast is home to more than 27,000 indigenous immigrants and their families, many working in the fields of ‘America’s Salad Bowl,’” said Linda Ford, president & CEO of Natividad Medical Foundation. “Several years ago we recognized the need to train interpreters who speak indigenous languages that are not available through traditional interpreting services in order to provide quality care for everyone. As word of our program spread, we began to receive calls from local and national organizations, and we realized this is an important service we can offer to communities around the country.”

According to the 2010 U.S. census, the most recent year from which statistics are available, 685,000 people identified themselves as Latinos of indigenous origin — a 68 percent increase since 2000. In addition to California, there are large indigenous Mexican populations in Texas, New York, Arizona, Colorado and Illinois.

In January 2010, D’Arrigo founded TALC to philanthropically support Natividad Medical Center (NMC) to improve the health status of farm workers and their families. TALC recognized the need for necessary medical equipment, diagnostic tools and services and decided that all funds donated will be used for medical equipment and services as determined by TALC. Twenty-two farm families joined as TALC Founding Members, and since then it has grown to include 116 members.

TALC has purchased the most technologically advanced equipment for premature and neonatal babies at NMC’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, including a computerized Panda warmer to keep critically ill newborns warm. In addition to equipment for the NICU, TALC has purchased and provided medical equipment that is currently being used in the Maternal Infant, Pediatric, Medical/Surgical and Intensive Care Units, the Emergency Room and Diabetes Education.