Fourth Stimulus Check Update: This Group Will Receive $600 Payments

American farmworkers and meatpacking workers may receive a one-time stimulus payment amounting to $600 to cover expenses incurred in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), under the Farm and Food Worker Relief Grant Program, has allocated an estimated $665 million in Consolidated Appropriations Act funds. The money will be used to provide grants to select state agencies, tribal entities and non-profit organizations with experience in providing support to farmworkers and meatpackers.

The entities chosen to receive the grant, the amount of which ranges between $5 million and $50 million, will be responsible for distributing $600 in relief payments to frontline farmworkers and meatpackers. The checks would offset the expenses incurred by farmworkers and meatpacking workers in preparation or preventing exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of Thursday, the application for the funding opportunity has closed. The USDA is expected to announce the list of awardees in the summer. Farmworkers, meatpackers and grocery store employees who are eligible to receive the payments are encouraged to request their checks from grant recipients once the funding selection has been announced.

The USDA’s stimulus program comes as Congress has yet to indicate plans to pass a fourth round of stimulus checks. However, several proposals have been floated in Congress and in several states as the cost of fuel continues to rise.

On March 17, Reps. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., John Larson, D-Conn., and Lauren Underwood, D-Ill., proposed a new bill called the Gas Rebate Act that would send eligible individual and joint tax filers $100 in monthly energy rebate to cover the rising cost of fuel. The bill would also provide $100 per dependent, which means a family with two children may receive up to $300 in energy rebate checks.

The $100 monthly payments would be sent out for the rest of the year where the national average gas prices exceed $4.00 per gallon. As of Thursday, the average price per gallon for regular gas was $4.236.

On Wednesday, Gov. Brian Kemp, R-Ga., signed a law that would send one-time stimulus checks amounting to between $250 and $500 to all eligible Georgia taxpayers who filed their income tax returns for the tax year 2021.