Molly Wolfes is the newest member of the Puente team

New hires can bring fresh perspective and vision to an organization. Molly Wolfes, Puente’s brand-new Community Health Coordinator, is originating an entire new position.

Wolfes, who started with Puente in early April, has a rather large challenge before her: to implement a vision of health care for all.

At present, most South Coast farm workers and other low-income residents do not have regular access to a physician. Often they can’t take time off work to deal with existing health issues, sometimes resulting in an even more severe problem. That should change in late 2014 when a new San Mateo County mobile health van makes the rounds in Pescadero and surrounding towns. Staffing the van, and making sure its medical team contacts the area’s most hard-to-find residents, are two of Wolfes’ immediate priorities. “Molly will be essential in coordinating all the moving parts for our medical program. I think she’s going to be great and I think she’s coming at exactly the right time for Puente,” says Executive Director Kerry Lobel.

Wolfes says she’s excited, too. “I think the biggest challenge is going to be finding the best and easiest way to get services to people,” she predicts. “Some people are willing to come to Puente and others are more isolated living on their farms and may be afraid to leave or take time off work for fear of losing their job.”

Wolfes holds a Master of Public Health from George Washington University. She comes to Puente from Stanford University, where she was working as a research interventionist, conducting home outreach and education with Spanish-speaking families struggling with obesity. Before that, she was Program Director with the West Contra Costa Salesian Boys & Girls Club, working with at-risk youth in Richmond, Calif.

Wolfes is bilingual. She grew up in San Rafael in an English-speaking home but picked up Spanish studying and working in Mexico, and Costa Rica. She began doing community development and public health work in rural Central American and Caribbean countries and found that she loved it.

Bringing Wolfes on board heralds a shift in the way Puente will approach health care from now on: comprehensively and strategically. In the past, Puente has responded to community health needs on a somewhat ad-hoc basis, bringing services to the coast as funding allowed. One of Wolfes’ most important tasks will be to give Puente a check-up – to assess how well Puente is performing on a series of metrics the nonprofit has committed to meeting, from providing immunizations and screenings to prevention and education workshops. Eventually, she will help Puente realize its goal of a permanent primary care facility on the South Coast, whether a medical clinic or something else.

Wolfes will also take on the role of coordinating services and communications between Stanford University, the county, and various nonprofits as concerns getting health care up and running on the South Coast.

But first, Wolfes will spend some time meeting farmers, farm workers and other residents. Her job is to create relationships. She will be asking one specific question over and over: what kind of health care does the community need?

Lobel says she knew Wolfes was the right person for the job based on her response to an unusual test Lobel devised for the candidates: she gave all the interviewees a pen and paper, and asked them to explain how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, step by step.

Wolfe’s answer started out, “First, ask the person if they are hungry.”

“I thought, ‘This is perfect. She’s trying to address the whole issue, not just assuming someone wants an entire sandwich,’” says Lobel. “That’s always the trick in designing intervention programs – it’s cool, but will it really meet the needs of the people in the community? I feel like she’s really prepared to ask questions before she designs programs, so that’s great.”

For more information about Puente’s health initatives, call 650.879.1691.

A series of recent policy changes at the state and county level have made it easier for low-income individuals to get health care coverage and buy healthy food, especially in and around Pescadero.

In January, a state law took effect that helps families already enrolled in Medi-Cal qualify For CalFresh, California’s version of SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). And San Mateo County recently approved a change to its ACE Health Plan Program (which covers low-income adults who are not eligible for other health programs) to waive the annual program fee for seasonal farm workers.

Both changes will “open a window for more participants to be eligible. There are families that will benefit,” says Kerry Lobel, Puente’s executive director.

Last year, Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 191, improve alignment between CalFresh and Medi-Cal and help ensure that low-income households with a Medi-Cal recipient also receive CalFresh nutrition benefits. From now on, any family with at least one person enrolled in Medi-Cal will be categorically eligible for CalFresh – provided that family’s combined monthly income does not exceed $3,925, or 200 percent of the federal poverty level for a family of four. Previously, CalFresh eligibility was capped at 130% of the federal poverty level.

The state has been looking for ways to make it easier for people to apply all at one time for all the public assistance programs they qualify for, according to Nancy Rodriguez, a management analyst with the Human Services Agency of San Mateo County, who specializes in this area.

“We want people to be healthy. And in order for them to be healthy, they need to eat a good meal. It goes hand in hand,” says Rodriguez.

The next step is to increase enrollments. Both Puente and county officials are undertaking efforts to spread the word in the coming months, since many people who qualify for special assistance don’t always know it.

According to statistics provided by San Mateo County, 18 percent of Pescadero residents live below the federal poverty line – the largest percentage anywhere in the county. Of the 116 individuals who qualify for CalFresh, 108 people are enrolled.

Lobel says both those numbers are likely low, and that more people will qualify under the new rules.

Puente also enrolls participants in ACE, the county’s specialized health care program for people who don’t qualify for health care under any other circumstances (for instance, if they are not fully documented). De Mendez was thrilled when the county decided to adopt a fee waiver for farm workers earning less than $23,000 per year. This entails a $360 savings, although participants are still responsible for co-pays.

Many farm and nursery workers have lived in the area for years, paid their taxes, and still don’t have health care. Now they have an incentive to have Puente sign them up.

Country life in Pescadero can often feel like a whole other planet next to the fast-paced life of Silicon Valley, burnished with wealth and buzzing with ambition. Yet many Silicon Valley residents and workers are among Puente’s most loyal and cherished donors. And the Silicon Valley Community Foundation itself has been a faithful and constant source of support from Puente’s earliest days.

Even with those relationships, nothing could have prepared Puente Executive Director Kerry Lobel for the email she received last month, informing her that an anonymous donor had awarded Puente a $35,000 matching grant through Silicon Valley Gives, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation’s unique regional giving campaign.

On May 6, Puente will have an opportunity to earn a dollar-for-dollar match on that $35,000 by asking donors to participate in Giving Day, a remarkable one-day donation bonanza that is intended to benefit every nonprofit in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. On May 6, Silicon Valley Gives (and hundreds of Silicon Valley volunteers) will rally thousands of donors to give to their favorite causes. The event will likely raise millions of dollars in donations, and has already prompted a flurry of preparations from nonprofits that see an unprecedented opportunity to tell their stories to a wider audience.

“It’s a huge gift and a huge opportunity. Now there’s a lot at stake,” says Lobel.

Puente is part of an extraordinary company of groups to have received special recognition ahead of May 6. The anonymous donor who gave the matching grant to Puente committed a total of $1.1 million to some two dozen nonprofits, many of them focused on health and education.

“The donor is somebody who believes in Puente’s mission and has watched Puente and knows the good work you do on behalf of low-income families and farm workers in the Coastside community,” says Jennifer Kane, Senior Philanthropy Advisor with the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

Donations to Puente’s Silicon Valley dollar-for-dollar campaign only count if they are given through this website between 12:01 a.m. and midnight Pacific Time on Tuesday, May 6.  Donors can also schedule gifts in advance by clicking here.