In 2020, California's Foster Farms became the site of one of the nation's deadliest COVID outbreaks at a meat or poultry plant. KQED's Alex Hall spent more than a year talking to spouses and family members of workers who spent decades at the company's plants. Her reporting recently won a national Murrow Award.
The company is appealing citations from state regulators alleging it failed to communicate with workers about COVID-19 infections, outbreaks and deaths, among other violations, at a Foster Farms' plant in Fresno. A Cal/OSHA investigation found employees who died or were hospitalized likely were exposed to the coronavirus at work.