Yakima clinic receives ultra-cold freezers from AgroFresh for vaccine

Late Thursday afternoon, Lori Kelley, received a phone call from AgroFresh Solutions, Inc.

They were loaning three of their ultra-cold freezers and wanted to know if our clinics had a need. 

“This has been an incredibly hard week; this call almost reduced me to tears, I was so overwhelmed with gratitude,” said Kelley, Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic Senior Director of Quality.

It has been long known that the Pfizer vaccine, the first to be made available to the public, must be stored in special ultra-cold freezers, which has resulted in shortages of these specialized equipment. 

“We thought it was going to be April before we were able to procure one,” Kelley said. 

AgroFresh, a global produce freshness leader with a large R&D lab/regional service center in Yakima realized they could be part of the COVID-19 response by making available three of their ultra-cold freezers. 

Since the early days of the pandemic, Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic has been working with the agricultural community to perform mass testing.

AgroFresh was one of many of the partners who worked with Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic to ensure essential workers are protected, tested, and treated. 

The Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic provides comprehensive medical, dental, behavioral health, and social services for more than 166,000 people
.“We serve such a large number of people who otherwise don’t have access to primary care,” says Kelley. “We are the best place to ensure that the most vulnerable in our community have access to this life-saving vaccine.” The majority of our valley is considered critical infrastructure and therefore unable to stay at home or work remotely. This is such a blessing for us. This will enable us to more quickly and efficiently serve our patients and our community.” Kelley said. 

These three specialized freezers will alleviate some burden for Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic and nearby hospitals that have been supporting the state vaccine response. The freezers will be used in Yakima, Toppenish, and Grandview.

“We live and work across the Yakima Valley and consider ourselves part of the local community,” said Paul Nelson, Commercial Director North America for AgroFresh, who is based in Yakima. “We are incredibly pleased to be able to support local agricultural workers and their families and accelerate our area’s ability to reduce the impact of this global pandemic.” 

As we were leaving the clinic to let the clinic maintenance staff do the work of finding a home for our new COVID vaccine freezer, a member of the local AgroFresh team stated, “You know, my parents went here. My grandparents went here. And my family goes to this clinic. It means so much to us to be able to contribute back to a clinic that has done so much for the community.”