Less than One Meal Per Day: Food Insecurity and Deprivation Among Indigenous Oaxacan Farmworkers in California.

Food insecurity and lack of wellbeing among farmworker populations, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, are well documented. However, Indigenous migrant farmworker communities remain an understudied group, despite comprising over 40% of the current migrant farmworker labor workforce in California. This mixed-methods study assessed wellbeing and food insecurity among 40 Oaxacan Indigenous migrant farmworker households in the California Central Valley from 2022 to 2023. This study is the first of its kind utilizing the common Self-Reliance Index (SRI) among Indigenous migrant farmworkers. Using a collaborative researcher-community approach, a team of community researchers conducted the SRI and added qualitative questions developed in collaboration with a local community organization, Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indígena Oaxaqueño. This researcher-community partnership developed and enabled trust, increased participation, and encouraged authentic responses across multiple languages. Results demonstrate a vast majority (72.5%) of respondents were only able to eat one full meal or less a day and 35% live in inadequate housing, which significantly impacted Indigenous farmworkers' ability to be self-reliant within their communities. These findings reveal staggering levels of severe food insecurity, food deprivation, housing, and employment instability among this essential worker community. The California Central Valley feeds the nation but lacks proper policies and programs to support one of their fundamental workforces. Policy and programmatic approaches are necessary to improve food access of Indigenous migrant food workers in California.