North Bay business briefs from Napa Valley Grapegrowers, Bouchaine Vineyards and more
Napa Valley Farmworker Foundation and Napa Valley Grapegrowers have announced a partnership with St. Helena Hospital Foundation to increase access to COVID-19 screening for farmworkers. The grower trade group and foundation have jointly funded supplying and staffing a mobile health unit, capable of traveling to vineyard sites and testing up to 100 vineyard workers per day.
These funds have secured an initial order of 3,000 tests to be made available throughout harvest to vineyard workers, the groups stated.
Since the pandemic was declared in March, the grower trade association and foundation have dedicated over $200,000 to provide comprehensive safety resources in Spanish and English, social distancing vineyard signs, cloth face masks to over 10,000 farmworkers, and recently launched a statewide bilingual community education campaign via the farmworker foundation’s COVID-19 task force.
The Napa Valley Grapegrowers is a nonprofit trade organization representing 726 Napa County grape growers and associated businesses.
Found in 2011, the farmworker foundation has offered education and professional development opportunities to more than 21,000 vineyard workers and their families.
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Wine Institute submitted formal comments to the U.S. Trade Representative urging an end to all retaliatory tariffs on wine. The comments were submitted as a part of the trade representative’s review of enforcement actions taken in response to a World Trade Organization dispute over civil aircraft subsidies.
USTR placed a 25% tariff on bottled wine imports from France, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom in October and is currently considering increasing these tariffs further. The European Union has stated that it intends to retaliate against U.S. wine when authorized to do so by the WTO.
San Francisco-based Wine Institute is the public policy advocacy group of more than 1,000 California wineries and affiliated businesses. California is the fourth largest wine producer worldwide and accounts for 95% of U.S. wine exports.
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Bouchaine Vineyards proprietors Tatiana Copeland, president, and her husband, Gerret, have purchased a sizable olive grove.
The 43-acre property is located at 2686 Las Amigas Road, just one mile from Bouchaine. The property has a 20-acre organic olive grove, consisting of 3,000 organically farmed olive trees.
Family-owned Bouchaine Vineyards (707-252-9065) is located at 1075 Buchli Station Road, Napa.
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Napa County Farm Bureau has embarked on hosting a continual series of Napa Valley industrywide educational webinars addressing COVID-19 during harvest. On Friday, July 24, the farm bureau hosted the latest industrywide webinar addressing a number of important, pressing issues to educate Napa Valley’s agricultural employers and employees how to best respond to COVID-19 as they begin to embark on harvest. The Farm Bureau has held a series of these meetings educating employers and employees about best COVID-19 safety
Speakers included Dr. Karen Relucio, Napa County public health officer; Bryan Little, chief operating officer, Farm Employers Labor Service/California Farm Bureau; Seth Mehrten, attorney, Barsamiam & Moody; Napa County Farm Bureau CEO Ryan Klobas; Napa County Farm Bureau President Johnnie White; Supervisor Diane Dillon and Supervisor Alfredo Pedroza.
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On July 23, the Center for Volunteer & Nonprofit Leadership honored recipients of the Virtual Heart of Napa Awards.
Clif Family Winery received the Corporate Community Service Award, sponsored by Pacific Gas and Electric Company.
The Volunteer of the Year Award, sponsored by Syar Foundation, was presented to Joan Lyon, Community Action Napa Valley. Joan Lyon is the heart and soul of Napa’s Food Pantry. She dedicates four days a week, year-round, acting as the volunteer floor manager.
The Excellence in Board Leadership Award, sponsored by Comerica Bank, was presented to Maira Ayala, OLE Health.
The Youth Volunteer of the Year Award, sponsored by Redwood Credit Union, was presented to five high schools students serving a local nonprofit, education, or faith-based organization. Each student also received a $1,000 scholarship in support of their contributions to the community. This year’s youth volunteers were Dareydy Rojas, Freshman at Vintage High School; Averi Dropping, senior at New Tech High School; Talulah Finkelstein, 7th grader at Blue Oak School; Deisy Mendoza, senior at Napa High School; and Sophie Heflebower, senior at Napa Valley Independent Studies.
Pete Shaw, CrossWalk Community Church was presented the Excellence in Leadership Award. Acting as the senior pastor since 1999.
The Achievement in Nonprofit Excellence Award, sponsored by Kaiser Permanente, Napa-Solano, was presented to American Canyon Community and Parks Foundation.
