b'F i r s t - e v e r l a u n d r y s e r v i c e i n P e s c a d e r oi m p r o v e s l i v i n g c o n d i t i o n sFor decades, one of the most problematic parts of living on the South Coast has been a lack of laundry services. Each week, hundredsof residents drive to laundromats in either Half Moon Bay or Santa Cruzif theyre lucky enough to have access to a car, which is notcommon for all farmworkers. You would think that a problem with such an obvious solution would have been solved a long time ago.But as Puentes team discovered, finding water access was impossible, let alone somewhere to dump the wastewater. Puentes team did not give up until she found a solution: a mobile laundry service. In March, following months of permit wrangling,Puente debuted its weekly laundry service in partnership with WeHOPE, a nonprofit based in East Palo Alto that primarily serveshomeless people across the Bay Area and with support of the La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District. For the first months,Puente covered the entire cost of the program, but recently San Mateo County granted Measure K Funds. From 4 to 7 PM on Wednesdays, participants go to the Pescadero Elementary School parking lot where the truck trailer is set up witha generator, machines and water tanks.The slots are fully booked every week, says Hyun-mi Kim, Community Engagement and Public Policy Director. There are regularparticipants who come every week from the nearby farms or who carpool to come and use our laundry service. Some of them workan evening shift, so they drop off their clothes and go back to work and come back to pick them up. 56-year-old Gabriel Gutierrez reserves his laundry slot every week, and he relaxes at the Puente snack tables with other locals whilehis laundry gets washed for free. Its for me and my son. He drops me off and goes back home, and then comes to pick me up wheneverything is ready, he explains. Even with laundry services fully booked, thats just 20 loads of laundry each week, as compared with at least 300 local householdsFirst day of service for the free mobile laundry that could use it, according to Kims estimate. Its barely putting a dent in the needs that actually exist out here. in March, 2023. We wish that we could do even more, she says. Primer da de servicio de lavandera mvilgratuita en marzo, 2023.W i t h t h e s u p p o r to f W e H o p e , 3 8 8 l o a d s o fl a u n d r y h a v e b e e n p r o v i d e d t o12 4 3 u n d u p l i c a t e d i n d i v i d u a l s .'