Hi, everyone, this is Alejandra, Food Empowerment Project’s (F.E.P.) communications specialist. I’ve been with F.E.P. for over a year and just completed my second run of our School Supply Drive for the children of farm workers!
This year was different, as we are based in our new home, San Luis Obispo (SLO)! But the mission was the same: packing tons of school supplies to be sent to the families of farm workers. lauren, Lee, and I spent a Saturday packing, counting, and organizing backpacks ranging from Pre-K to 12th grade. After discussing what our favorite backpacks were, we packed them all with color-coordinated folders, markers, calculators, notebooks, highlighters, and more.
Buckley Springs Storage, also in SLO, played a huge role in this year’s drive; they offered a discounted unit, allowing us to pack easily! We can’t thank them enough for their generosity.
The backpacks were sent to three different cities in California: Orcutt, Santa Maria, and Half Moon Bay, where farm worker families were impacted by gun violence earlier this year. After over 150 bags were packed, lauren and I set off to meet Lizabeth Valdez and the farm workers’ families at the first location in Orcutt the next day.
Lizabeth works to protect the rights of farm workers, and we are so grateful to have her be an essential part of our drive year after year.
We met the farm workers at Waller Park, where one of the children was celebrating their birthday. It was so heartwarming hearing all the kids squeal with excitement when they saw our SUV filled with backpacks. The kids loved all the designs, including Yoda, Pokémon, and Encanto. And, of course, the teenagers loved the simpler options. We also had a small number of baby backpacks containing blank cards and markers. This was for the parents who leave their babies with a sitter while they work, and their little ones loved it!
The best part was seeing the birthday girl ensure her cousins and friends were taken care of first, and at the end, she gathered them all to thank us! This is a memory we will cherish forever. The kids were so thankful, but we were so grateful to be able to do this for them and for their families. We reminded the children of how grateful we are for their parents and that this event is to help pave a better future for them and help them succeed.
After giving out backpacks to the first group of farm workers, we set off to Santa Maria to meet more workers at a nearby house, where we got to deliver the next set of supplies. We met an incredible young Indigenous activist, Paola, who helped translate in English, Spanish, and Mixteco.
Lastly, I want to share why this year’s School Supply Drive was so important to me. At the beginning of July, I lost my grandma. She lived a full 80 years filled with love and family. She was my whole heart and my richest connection to my Mexican heritage. After she passed, I felt like a part of my culture was taken too. I would tell my grandma about our School Supply Drive, and I even wrote last year’s blog post sitting beside her. She loved it and would call me at the end of each day to see how the packing went.
Our School Supply Drive is a tangible way for me to stay connected to my community, and for that, I am so grateful to be doing this work with a vegan organization that not only cares about the lives of animals but also the health and well-being of our people.
F.E.P. has dedicated this year’s School Supply Drive for the children of farm workers to my grandma, Guadalupe Santa Ana.
Thank you to everyone who donated funds, sent us backpacks, and shared our posts. It meant the world to us, to me, and to the farm workers’ families. Please enjoy these images and video from our drop-offs, and remember that this is not an act of charity but a way to right an injustice that is taking place against these workers.
Here’s to another successful School Supply Drive!
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Beautiful article and tribute to your grandma (my mama) ❤️❤️ I am inspired by the good work that FEP does. Thank you for trying to make our world better and more compassionate 🌸🌸