Health Fair translators and other help

Puente needs two Spanish-English translators during the community Health Fair on October 19. Puente is also looking for an optometrist willing to donate four hours’ worth of free eye exams; and additional volunteers to help cook healthy food the day before the Health Fair. For details, contact Community Health Coordinator at (650) 879-1691 x 321 or email Molly Wolfes.

Dia de los Muertos: help with set-up

Puente could use a hand setting up the community altar and other preparations for our Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead festivities on October 30, from 9-11 a.m. Email Abby Mohaupt for details. 

Be a Reading Friend

Help boost literacy by reading with students from kindergarten to 5^th grade on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7:30 to 8:30 pm. Email Abby Mohaupt for details.

Help new drivers learn the rules of the road

This fall, Puente needs several short-term tutors, fluent in Spanish, to mentor adults preparing to take their driver’s license written exam at the DMV. The position involves one or two nights a week, for 4 weeks. To volunteer, contact Community Outreach Coordinator Ben Ranz at (650) 879-1691 x 143 or email Ben Ranz.

Help adults get their GED and become citizens

Every year, Puente helps local adults realize their dream of earning a high school degree; others become American citizens. Be a part of the transformation – sign up to help with tutoring (in Spanish) and citizenship requirements. For more information, email Abby Mohaupt.

Seeking mentors to keep high school kids on track

Puente is committed to supporting our local youth all the way through high school and college. Sometimes by the time anyone realizes a student is struggling, it’s too late. Puente sees 12 mentors who can commit to spending time with a student one day each week, preferably on Wednesday. Mentors will help ensure their mentee is getting good grades, particularly in English and Algebra. College readiness is also a key goal. For more information, email Abby Mohaupt.

For more information on this and ALL volunteer opportunities, call (650) 879-1691 ext 102, email Abby Mohaupt, or fill out a Volunteer Form by clicking here.

The California drought is a narrative of subtraction.  On the South Coast, some agricultural producers – particularly row crop farmers and those who raise animals – started the season with less water than they’ve ever had and are finishing the summer with even less. Their new goal: ration well enough to stay solvent next year.

Farms that rely solely on water in Butano Creek, which flows from the slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains to the ocean, are hardest-hit, as are ranches that need rainfall to turn their pastureland green for animal forage. Local berry farms have suspended their U-pick operations because of the berry’s limited supply.

Blue House Farm, which relies on Butano Creek, has been painstakingly hand-watering rows of tomatoes and other produce because there isn’t enough water in the creek to irrigate several rows at once. The farm also recently installed a water tank to ration water from the creek.

Fifth Crow Farm, one of the largest employers in the area, also relies on Butano Creek and has been white-knuckling through the season by using water saving measures such as drip irrigation, watering at night when the creek has fewer water users, and planting crops that don’t require much water, like winter squash and green beans.

Teresa Kurtak, Fifth Crow Farm

“We’re in the process of getting an even smaller pump so that we can slowly draw small amounts of water and continue to fill our tanks without risking running the creek dry,” says Teresa Kurtak, one of three partners who own Fifth Crow Farm.  The farm employs 20 people and Kurtak says reduced production may at some point require workforce cutbacks.

That’s what Kerry Lobel is afraid of.

“The agricutural economy is the heart of South Coast life. If people are not able to sustain making a living, then our way of life will really change. And that’s a bad thing as far as I’m concerned,” says Lobel, Executive Director of Puente.

Rainfall in California since winter 2013 is officially the lowest since 1895, according to scientific records, and conditions have already caused $2.2 billion in damages statewide.

The Coastside has always been a drought-adapted community, and farmers here were spared the much of the pain affecting other parts of the state until very recently, according to San Mateo County Agricultural Commissioner Fred Crowder. The county’s latest crop report suggests ranchers are losing production value faster than any other group of farmers. Flower growers and nurserymen often irrigate with potable water, so their supply has not been affected. But “some vegetable growers barely made it by the skin of their teeth,” Crowder says. “This year, if we continue in this drought situation, I anticipate it will see impacts on our vegetable growers.”

Local cattle ranchers and animal farmers were hit hard by the drought as early as March, and have been culling their herds or moving them to another part of the state.

Early Bird Ranch has the capacity to raise 10,000 broiler chickens but is only raising 500 this year, according to co-founder ShaeLynn Watt. “We need more rain to absorb the impact of the chickens so we can use the land more easily,” she explains. “Wind without rain is a concern for topsoil.”

Root Down Farm raises chickens, pigs and turkeys – and vegetables, except for this year. Now the farm is struggling to keep enough water for the animals to drink.

David Evershed and Dede Boies, Root Down Farm

“This is real, people, this is not just something we talk about anymore.  A big reason to why we are raising animals and not growing any crops this year is due to the drought,” writes the farm’s website.

The drought may yet prompt some progress around water issues. Kurtak, of Fifth Crow Farm, says regulators are discussing how to create more off-stream water storage (like ponds and reservoirs) – which she sees as a positive sign. “Many local farms would like to put in more ponds to fill in the winter when water flow is high, but the bureaucracy and red tape are intimidating and costly and hamper those efforts. Maybe this will stimulate the regulatory agencies to figure out how to simplify and streamline that process,” she explained.

Hilario Rosales is a farm worker. But if you find him at Puente on a weeknight, he might be sitting at a table, staring at a laptop screen with a look of intense concentration.

“My kids and I want to do video chats. I don’t have a lot of experience with computers, but I would like to learn.”

Learning is easily Rosales’ favorite activity, in addition to reading his encyclopedias, listening to music, and spending time with local friends at La Sala, Puente’s twice-weekly social hour for local farm workers. He’s also studying for his GED and taking English classes through Puente. Which begs the question: when does he ever sleep?

Hilario Rosales

The question makes him laugh. “I have a dream of learning. Now that I have my new job, I have more free time and I want to study more.”

Four months ago, Rosales, a 45-year-old father whose wife and three children live in Jalisco, Mexico, left his old job harvesting leeks for Marchi Farms for a new position at Cevasco Nursery, where he fumigates greenhouse flowers and helps prepare soil for planting.

For Rosales, a 54-hour workweek is “light” – 9 hours a day, with only Sundays off. A “busy” week is 11-hour workdays, Sundays included. He earns $9.75 an hour before taxes, pays $104 per month to rent a bedroom at Cevasco, buys what he needs to survive and sends the rest home to his family.

Regardless of his schedule, you’ll see Rosales attend class three nights a week at Puente.

“Because we dedicate our lives to work, there’s a lot of routine – home, work, home, work,” he explains. “But I like to participate in things. If I didn’t come to Puente, I wouldn’t have met anybody.”

By the wealth standards of San Mateo County, Rosales’ life is extremely modest. But he carries himself with strength and confidence. He looks fit and trim in a sports fleece, jeans and stylish sneakers, which he uses to run laps around the greenhouses at Cevasco once a week. He has a friendly, open face, which lights up when he talks about the life he’s created for himself on the South Coast.

Hilario Rosales uses Facebook to communicate with his family.

“Here in Pescadero I feel free. I can walk where I want, come to classes. I don’t have to hide from anyone. I try to be respectful to everyone. And it makes me feel sure of myself.”

Rosales likes to stay plugged in. He’s got a cell phone, which he uses to talk to his kids every day. He has a post office box, which he checks on Sundays while scanning the bulletin board for community announcements. He meanders around town, visits the gas station taqueria and chats with his friends. Sometimes people speak to him in English, which is what led to his decision to take English classes at Puente. “I need English a lot,” he says.

Now that Rosales is studying for his GED, he becomes the fourth person in his family to be studying for a degree. His eldest child, who is 22, is wrapping up a college degree; his 18-year-old is entering college and his 16-year-old will be graduating high school shortly. Not bad for a father who dropped out of school after the 8^th grade.

The main reason Rosales moved to California to begin with was to finance his kids’ education, and to pay for household necessities. He feels it was a good decision. “Puente has given me a lot of support. I feel really contented,” he says.