Puente unexpectedly received two major awards in January for its efforts to connect the South Coast’s rural, underserved population with quality health care.

On January 9, Lorena Vargas de Mendez, Puente’s Safety Net Services Manager, was presented with the Toby J. Douglas Leadership and Advocacy Award on behalf of San Mateo County, to recognize her extraordinary work in helping San Mateo County’s most vulnerable residents get health care coverage.

Lorena Vargas honored with Toby J. Douglas Leadership and Advocacy Award

De Mendez says her award came as a complete shock when it was announced in the middle of a meeting of the Children’s Health Initiative Oversight Coalition. Puente is a member of the coalition and a Community Health Advocate with San Mateo County’s Health Coverage Unit, which helps families apply for free and low-cost health coverage.

Over time, de Mendez has made a major difference in the lives of hundreds of low-income community members. Last year, she helped more than 400 South Coast neighbors get free or affordable health care, including getting them signed up for insurance programs and helping them with navigating complex medical systems.

She is especially proud to have been nominated by Graciela Lopez, a manager with the Health Coverage Unit that oversees Puente’s health enrollment efforts. 

“This represents that the people outside Pescadero recognize our advocacy. When outsiders recognize our work, it makes it even more special,” says de Mendez. “As a member of the Pescadero community, I am grateful to the Health Coverage Unit for their investment in our region. It’s my pleasure to work hard to earn their confidence.”

Puente’s ongoing connection with San Mateo County is what makes this work possible, says de Mendez. Not only does the county help pay for part of her salary at Puente; county staffers have helped answer complicated questions about Covered California, and have helped fast-track health coverage for certain Puente program participants who needed care at a critical time.

Community Outreach Coordinator, Ben Ranz, flanked by Stanford Office of Community Health Symposium keynote speaker Dr. Richard Jackson and Rhonda McClinton-Brown, Executive Director of the Office of Community Health

Puente was honored to accept the annual Outstanding Community Partner Award at the Stanford School of Medicine’s 12^th annual Community Health Symposium on January 21. The award recognizes, among other accomplishments, the fruits of Puente’s relatively new partnership with the Office of Community Health. Puente and Stanford have collaborated on a number of exciting projects, including the first-ever South Coast community health care survey and a new mobile medical clinic that will start visiting the South Coast in 2014.

The best part of the award may have been the person who presented it – Stanford medical student Jessie Liu. She also nominated Puente for the award, which recognized both Puente’s role in community health and its role in the lives of Stanford students and faculty.

“It’s an award that’s given based on the quality of work an organization does, in addition to the quality of their relationship with the community they serve,” says Liu.

Liu cares about Puente. Two years ago, she spent a summer internship working with Puente. She helped identify the health needs of the community, pulling together testimonials from local residents, county health officials, and others. At the end of the summer, she compiled her research and data into a series of reports and recommendations on how to bring health care access to the South Coast.

She was a first-year medical student at the time, and she says that summer was a formative experience for her.

“I continue to be incredibly impressed with Puente, and with the work they do that’s critical to building a community,” says Liu, who remains friendly with Lobel and describes her as “an inspiration.”

Liu will spend her career in community health in low-resource areas. Her experience with Puente helped her realize that there are plenty of communities in the U.S. that need her help, even in Silicon Valley’s backyard.

“We’re grateful for our partnership with Stanford and the Office of Community Health,” said Puente executive director Kerry Lobel. “Whatever the challenge, our friends at OCH are there to help us meet it. Ours is a true partnership.”

This winter, Bay Area residents have navigated from one crisis to the next. The season started out with record below-freezing nights in early December, the temperatures so dangerous that several homeless men died of exposure. Now an unprecedented high-pressure front heralds the worst drought of the last 100 years. And while most people remark on the weather only in passing, these extremes make a huge difference to farm workers living on the coast. The drought imperils their livelihoods. And the frigid temperatures imperil their health.

Puente can’t make it rain, but we can help local workers and families stay warm at night. Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of our donors, Puente was able to distribute more than 400 blankets to the people who needed them most. That’s nearly half of all residents in Pescadero.

And not just blankets. This winter, Puente received a gift of special cold-weather undergarments, like t-shirts and long underwear, from the Japanese fashion company UNIQLO.

Farmworkers at La Sala with UNIQLO shirts

“It’s just another example of how people rally in many different ways for Puente,” says Kerry Lobel, Puente’s Executive Director.

UNIQLO is a major brand, with a popular flagship store in San Francisco and two other Bay Area stores on the way. In 1984, Fast Retailing, headed by Tadashi Yanai, opened the first UNIQLO store in Hiroshima, Japan. Since then, the brand has evolved from a chain of roadside stores to an international leader in style, quality, and fun. Jean-Emmanuel Shein, Marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility Director for UNIQLO, was introduced to Puente by a mutual friend at the Philanthropic Ventures Foundation, Executive Director James Higa. When the weather turned devastatingly cold, Shein figured folks could benefit from clothes with UNIQLO’s patented Heattech technology – extra-thin garments that help the skin preserve heat in the winter.

More than 100 farm and nursery workers, men and women, received the undergarments at a critical time.

“I don’t know what these guys do, but I imagine that they get up really early in the morning, and it’s cold and it’s foggy, and they work in less than ideal circumstances,” says Shein.

The clothes were a hit. And they proved something Puente already knows to be true: that sometimes help comes from unexpected sources. When Lobel sent an urgent plea for blankets to the larger Puente community, her request resonated with people all over the country. Many sent checks if they couldn’t bring blankets. Others, like Pamela Eakins, forwarded urgently worded emails to their own networks. This had far-reaching effects. Puente is still seeing the results.

Pamela Eakins’ email resulted in more than 100 blankets for Puente as well as many cash donations

“I realized, as part of this community group, that we can organize to meet people’s needs more effectively,” says Eakins, who asked dozens of people for help on Puente’s behalf. Those individuals, in turn, spread the word to others.

Eakins is a sociologist and counselor. She was on the board of the Coastside Collaborative, a grassroots precursor to Puente. She said she’s realized that while one person can do a lot of good, a community group can organize to meet people’s needs more effectively. The response she received to her request for assistance was evidence of that.

“They answered in the name of the cherished community,” says Eakins. “Ultimately, we are all one people. If one of us is cold, we are all cold. If one soul is cold, none of us can be truly comfortable.”

To donate to Puente, please visit https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/puente

Jump, Spin and Dance: Puente’s 2nd Annual Zumbathon: Stay tuned for more details.