Farm worker and parish catechist Jorge Guzmán walks through weed-strewn fields at Westland Nursery in Pescadero, where church closures during the pandemic crippled demand for fresh flowers. (Photo by Zac Wittmer/San Francisco Catolico)
October 19, 2020
Lorena Rojas
San Francisco Católico
The prolonged closure of churches, the cancellation of weddings, quinceañeras and first communions due to COVID-19, has some nurseries in Pescadero about to close, the measure also affects other businesses in San Francisco related to flowers.
The Westland Nursery in Pescadero had about 70 employees last year, the business began to decline slowly before the pandemic from competition with imported flowers, but after the two and a half month shelter-in-place the decline has left it on the brink of closing.
When the nursery reopened in May, it was only able to hire ten of its employees and for fewer hours a day.
The greenhouses look desolate, without single cultivated plant, much less flowers, with outdoor fields covered with weeds.
On one of the farms there is a small parcel of Amor en la Niebla (Nigella) and on another of the company’s farms there is a small parcel of lilies. These two parcels were cultivated in May upon return from quarantine.
As if the damage caused by the quarantine closure were not enough, the new plantations were about to be lost with the August fires near the coast.
Westland Nursery workers as well as many tresidents of Pescadero, La Honda and San Gregorio were evacuated.
Nursery employees were allowed to work a few hours so that they would not lose the little production that means the sustenance of four families.
Jorge Guzmán, a Westland Nursey worker and catechist at Mission San Antonio in Pescadero who has worked for this nursery for 43 years, told San Francisco Católico that he does not know if the owner will be able to continue with the business.
The little they have planted after the quarantine is barely sold because the San Francisco flower market isn’t buying from them like it used to, he said.
Guzmán affirmed that the closing of the churches is one of the reasons why the flowers are not being sold.
Lucy Michel, the florist who designs the flower arrangements for St. Mary´s Cathedral in San Francisco and St. Charles Borromeo parish, agreed that Catholic churches and events require a lot of flowers.
During the quarantine, Michel’s business wcompletely stopped. She had contracts to do the floral decorations for six weddings during the spring and summer of 2020 but were canceled. The clients moved the weddings for the next year.
Michel’s business has started operating again in the last two months, but at a slow pace.
Currently, it is selling flowers mainly for funerals, although not as much as before the pandemic, due to the limitations in funeral services.
Many of the flowers Michel uses for decorations come from the farms in Half Moon Bay and from Pescadero to the flower market in San Francisco, where most of the workers are Hispanic as Susano Ledezma.
Since Ledezma came from Guadalajara, México, 25 years ago he has worked in the San Francisco Flower Market.
The last 16 years he worked in one of the largest florists there. When the shelter-in-place started, Ledezma and his co-workers lost their jobs.
The San Francisco Flower Market has opened and some of Ledezma’s co-workers have been rehired, but he hasn’t yet.
Since the middle of March when he lost his job, he and his wife Catalina Rocha have not had health insurance and both are suffering stress and depression.
Ledezma is concerned because unemployment benefits were reduced to 50 percent in September and he does not know how he will pay the rent of $1,800 for his apartment in South San Francisco.
“I can still work,” he said.
When Ledezma worked in the San Francisco Flower Market, he had clients from many churches. “They were good customers. They bought many flowers in May for first communions and in June for weddings and quinceañeras. There was a lot of business“, he said.
Rita Mancera, deputy executive director of the nonprofit organization Puente that helps the communities of Pescadero, La Honda, Loma Mar and San Gregorio, said that the farms most affected are those that produce flowers only.
The other farms that grow vegetables and flowers kept producing during the shelter-in-place. She thinks the biggest hit on all agricultural activity in the cost was the fires of August.
Puente has allocated resources to temporarily cover the wages of farm workers who have not been able to work due to the fires and who do not have unemployment insurance, Mancera said.
The Link LonkOctober 20, 2020 at 12:38PM
https://catholic-sf.org/news/pescadero-flower-farms-threatened-by-church-closures
Pescadero flower farms threatened by church closures - Catholic San Francisco
https://news.google.com/search?q=Flower&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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