California IN BRIEF : TULELAKE : Emergency Aid Sent to Farm Workers

State agencies and private groups are rushing food to hundreds of farm workers and their families who fled the Central Valley freeze to work in the Klamath Valley, where the potato crop is not yet ready for harvesting. State officials and farm workers estimate that at least 2,000 people are suffering. In response, the state is sending 100,000 pounds of emergency food supplies to the area, in the northeast corner of the state. The Department of Social Services, which oversees California’s Emergency Food Distribution Program, agreed to send supplies to the area. “We just don’t know how large the need is or how many people are affected,” said Ken Grayson, director of the emergency food program. Grayson said Siskiyou and Modoc county officials have estimated that about 400 to 500 farm workers and their families appear to be in serious need.