Adelante Mujeres Celebrating 10 Years: Part 4 of 10

Here's the latest installment in the series celebrating Adelante Mujeres' 10th anniversary, written by Carrie Schmid and published in the News Times.

Adelante Mujeres provides a holistic approach to education.

"Community Group Provides Educational Building Blocks"

Teresa Puga believes that to be successful, children must have a good foundation. For her youngest son and daughter, Eduardo and Karen Garcia Puga, she found the building blocks of this foundation in Adelante Mujeres’ Early Childhood Education program.

Four of Puga’s eight children attended early childhood programs, and Puga says she has particularly noticed the difference the Adelante Mujeres program has made for Eduardo, 14, and Karen, 11. “I’m seeing the benefits,” she said, “because they are doing well in school.”

The education program at Adelante Mujeres “prepared us to go to kindergarten,” said Karen, who will be in the sixth-grade at Laurel Ridge Middle School in Sherwood next year. “They taught us a lot of things we learned in school.”

This September, Adelante Mujeres celebrates its tenth anniversary and the accomplishment of its bilingual Early Childhood Education program, which is offered to the children of students attending the Adelante Mujeres Adult Education program for Latina women.

“Ninety-eight percent of students in the ECE program meet state and federal benchmarks in early literacy skills and social and emotional development,” said Bridget Cooke, executive director of Adelante Mujeres, who attributes this success to a team of dedicated teachers and “the commitment of the parents to see their children thrive.” Adelante Mujeres started as a project of Centro Cultural in 1999. The group of Latina women that met once a week were led by Cooke and Barbara Raymond. In 2002, when Adelante Mujeres became an independent organization, the program moved to St. Bede’s Episcopal Church in Forest Grove and, a year later, a few blocks away to its current location at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church.

It grew from 15 women and their children to about 30 women and their children, ages one through five. Today, students attend classes five days a week for about four hours a day during the school year.

Before Puga and her children started going to Adelante Mujeres classes, she remembers spending most of her days at her Hillsboro apartment. “I wasted time watching TV,” she said. Eduardo, too, remembers the isolation. “I almost never met new people,” he said.

On her way to the laundry room, Puga would notice a group of Latina women meeting once a week. One day she got up the courage to ask about joining the group and was immediately integrated. Eduardo and Karen attended Adelante Mujeres’ ECE program through their preschool years and Puga remained in the program until 2010. She and her children say Adelante Mujeres changed their lives.

“In Adelante Mujeres I met a lot of people and it made my self-esteem stronger,” Eduardo said. “I learned how to be a friend, how to talk, to do activities. We ran around. I liked it a lot.”

Eduardo said he also appreciates having learned Spanish in the program. “A lot of kids don’t know how to read in Spanish,” he said. “We learned from preschool how to read and write in Spanish. Most of my brothers, after they grew up, they had to take Spanish classes for their jobs.”

As part of her Adult Education courses, Puga said she learned the importance of her role as the children’s teacher. She shared the information with her husband, Silviano. One day, Puga remembered, she was too busy to read with Karen so the little girl went to her father. “You have to read to me. Mama is busy,” Puga remembers her daughter saying. “He read to her,” she added.

In addition to parenting, mothers get a full range of classes at Adelante Mujeres: math, Spanish, literature, nutrition, personal development, leadership and English language development. Classes support students in obtaining GEDs, advancing their careers and preparing their children for kindergarten, Cooke said. Even though she hasn’t been in the program for two years, Puga is still taking English and math classes and is in the process of obtaining U.S. citizenship. Puga said she never plans to return to her homebound life, and in her future she said she sees herself doing volunteer work and helping people.

“Never backwards, always forward,” she said. Karen said she notices the change in her mother, since Adelante Mujeres. “She believes more in herself,” Karen said. “She now says, ‘Oh, I can do this’ or ‘I can do that.’”

Now Karen is working toward her own accomplishments. She said that she hopes to become a lawyer someday, but in her free time she wants to help children like herself by helping their mothers. “My mom was born in Mexico and didn’t get a lot of education,” Karen said. “There are a lot of mothers that need more help.”

Reflections on my Internship & Summer with Adelante Mujeres

La Esperanza Farm in mid May

La Esperanza Farm in mid July

Hello everyone,

Greetings from Ohio, where I arrived yesterday and got to taste my first sun-ripened tomato for the summer!  For those of you who don’t know, I’m back in Northeast Ohio to start work on my senior thesis (I’m evaluating urban agriculture projects in Cleveland based upon various standards of sustainability and success).  I finished up my internship at Adelante Mujeres about a week ago.  Before I get too busy with my next project, however, I wanted to provide some reflections on my summer internship.  I learned a lot both about myself and about larger societal issues, so I will just mention briefly a few of the things I took away in both categories.

Personal-level reflections:

Some early season transplants of brassicas.

At mid-season, the greens are growing like crazy.

1. I am fueled by physical work and sunlight (but am humbled by those who do hard labor for a living).  My favorite week of work was when it finally became summer in Oregon (mid-July) and I spent a lot of time out at La Esperanza Farm weeding, seeding, and doing other farm tasks.  It’s also nice to feel like I’m accomplishing something when I do this work (growing good food for others).

2. It’s important for me for my work to reflect my values and passions.  This might seem obvious, but I know a lot of people who don’t like where they work- and of course it’s idealistic to assume that it will be easy for me to get a job in something that I truly support.  I found this summer that my work was also my play, and that I was doing similar activities (growing & eating food, learning about agriculture, and attending farmers markets) both during and outside of work.  It was such a privilege to have this luxury, and yet I feel that everyone should have their work be something that they enjoy. 

3. I need more training- specifically agricultural and intercultural training.  I really enjoy and am challenged by farming, but I would never make it on my own at this point.  Thankfully, there are many programs popping up throughout the country that are training new farmers in sustainable growing techniques and small business development (here is one such example).  Another important skill for me to continue developing, since I want to continue to work with diverse populations in the realm of social (and environmental/food) justice, is my intercultural communication skills.  This is much harder for me to learn, except of course by continuing to work with and learn from a variety of populations.

Societal-level reflections:

The demo plot at La Esperanza farm, at about the time
when we finally began to get on top of the weeds.

1. It’s very difficult to become a farmer.  Not only is it hard to access training for sustainable agriculture, but it’s also hard to get start-up loans and to find land to lease or buy.  For Latinos in Adelante Agricultura, it’s even harder because of other barriers like language, race, and access to markets.  Thus, even with agricultural skills it’s so hard to make a living as a farm.

2. We need to have more programs so that low-income individuals and families can access and afford fresh, healthy, local, and sustainable food.  (Making this a true reality would require completely re-doing our food system, so in the meantime other reforms are needed.)  Hunger is not the only food issue around, it’s also being able to get affordable healthy food.  Incentive programs for food stamps and WIC recipients at farmers markets such as the one I helped run this summer are extremely important in allowing individuals to come get tasty, local produce.  There should also be more sustainable agriculture training courses and community gardens which any individual can attend so that all can just be able to not just purchase healthy food, but learn how to grow it themselves should they have interest.  Continuing and expanding funding of programs such as these are very important in the renewal of this year’s Farm Bill, especially as more and more individuals and families continue to have incomes which do not meet their needs.

We use these tokens at market for our food stamps and WIC incentive programs.

The farmers market can serve as a place for kids to learn about
food, such as with this market produce tasting activity.

3. Immigrant life is not easy.  I mentioned barriers that Latinos face when starting their own agricultural business.  These barriers extend to many other parts of life, including getting a house or getting another job.  I don’t mean to be patronizing, I just mean to say that the United States (especially the government) marginalizes and silences immigrants and that’s not fair.  There are struggles in all parts of their life, and giving opportunities to populations like immigrants (and others who have been denied opportunities because of their background) is important in working towards a more just society.  Adelante Mujeres is just one of the many organizations in the Portland area that are working to provide important services to these community members.

Lastly, here's a few of my favorite moments this summer and final photos:

• Learning how to drive the farm tractor
• Explaining the WIC and SNAP incentive programs at the Forest Grove Farmers Market in both English and Spanish (and learning about federal nutrition benefits in general)
• Improving my skills with power tools (namely my friend the cordless drill)
• Harvesting the kale and chard which I helped plant in May
• Seeing some of the new farmers sell their produce at the market for the first time
• Seeing the finished harvest guide that I helped write for the launch of La Esperanza Distributor
• Getting my family involved in my interests of food and agriculture (my dad helped build the Esperanza Farm washing station & expand our backyard garden; my mom and I went berry picking and made jam/yogurt/cheese together)

Our backyard raised bed creation extravaganza.

Picking raspberries and strawberries on Sauvie's Island.

Some of our finished jam.

Thanks for reading and keep in touch.

Peace,

ET

Some Interesting Agriculture Articles & Resources

Hi everyone,

As part of my internship with Adelante Mujeres, I've learned a lot about what types of resources exist for farmers and others involved in the creation of just and sustainable food systems.  Here's just a few recent articles and sites I've come across (that I learned more about through these new resources) which might be of interest to you.

• "Small-Scale Farmers Creating a New Business Model as Agriculture Goes Local" - a NYT article about some Pacific Northwest programs which are working to promote local agriculture.  Features a partner of Adelante Mujeres.
• "Let's Add a Little Dirt to Our Diets" - another NYT article, this one about how supporting local food outlets like farmers markets can keep us healthier because of the exposure to beneficial microorganisms that is in sustainably-grown food.
• "Growing Together" - an article released by EcoTrust, a Portland non-profit (and partner of Adelante Mujeres) that works to promote environmental well-being and innovation.  The article features Adelante Mujeres' farm-to-school partnerships and a few of the program's farmers.
• Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Map - a map showing recent food systems programs that receive funding from the USDA.  It's not the simplest to navigate, but it does show funding amounts for various programs throughout the country.

And here's a few recent photos:

La Esperanza Farm got mowed last week.

Beets and chiles at the demonstration plot of La Esperanza Farm.

Baby tomatillo at La Esperanza Farm.

Stickers at the Forest Grove Farmers Market.

New potatoes at the Forest Grove Farmers Market.

Adelante Mujeres Celebrating 10 Years: Part 3 of 10

Here’s the latest installment of Adelante Mujeres and News Times’ series on individuals who have helped make Adelante what it is in the past 10 years. Today's story is about a graduate of Adelante Agricultura.  Remember to check back every week until September 12^th (the date of Adelante Mujeres’ 10^th anniversary celebration) for a new story.

Lettuce and cabbage grow at La Esperanza Farm.

"A Growing Organic Tradition"
Written by Carrie Schmid

To tell the story of his garden, Rafael Francisco begins by introducing the characters in his plot — cucumbers, onions, corn, fava beans and chilacayote. He moves from plant to plant, leaning down to show the progress of the fruit he works hard to nurture.

Growing food is a way of life for Francisco, from the farm of his childhood in Guatemala to this small piece of land south of Gaston. Thanks to the support of an Adelante Mujeres’ program, Adelante Agricultura, Francisco has been able to continue to grow food and gain knowledge of farming. He now uses organic growing practices to produce the food he grows for family, friends and customers.

Francisco is the oldest of eight children. His parents worked as farmers in Guatemala growing products like coffee, peaches, plátanos and squash.

When he was 14 Francisco left his parent’s home to work in the United States. “We were poor,” he said.Twenty-four years later, Francisco is the father of three and an employee at a local nursery. Though he spends 40 to 50 hours per week at his day job, he still makes time for about six to eight hours a week at his garden.

“I like to sell (food),” he said. “And not buy it.” He also likes to eat it, he adds, and he likes to help his wife Juana cook it.

It’s important to us to eat food that is free of chemicals, Francisco said.

Francisco was not familiar with organic growing practices before he began working with Adelante Agricultura, said Alejandro Tecum, the program's director. Francisco was invited by a friend to Adelante Agricultura's sustainable agriculture course in 2005.


Adelante Agricultura’s 12-week sustainable farming class, taught in Spanish, covers topics like organic farming techniques, building soil, crop planning, pest management and more. The course also includes practical workshops at La Esperanza Farm.

La Esperanza Farm is a 12-acre certified organic farm located in Forest Grove and operated by Adelante Agricultura. Some graduates of the sustainable farming class choose to become members of the La Esperanza Farm and pursue a business venture in agriculture. Farmers produce on a quarter-acre plot of land and receive technical assistance and marketing support from Adelante Agricultura staff.  Individual families sell to outlets like local farmers markets and work collectively to sell their produce to larger-scale operations through La Esperanza Distributor, an Adelante Mujeres program that connects growers with distribution experts.

After graduating from the Adelante Agricultura course, Francisco and his wife started growing at “B Street Farm,” land that was managed by Metro, Adelante Mujeres and Pacific University.

“They were still hesitant about the methods they had learned in the class, but they were interested in the prospect of selling their produce at the Forest Grove Farmers Market,” Tecum said.

The second market day of the season, Francisco brought 35 pounds of fava beans and sold out in less than two hours. “This unexpected surprise motivated him and his wife to dedicate more time to working their plot. In the next couple of weeks the improvements in their space was evident. They began asking questions about organic growing techniques,” Tecum said. 

The following season Juana and Rafael grew more vegetables for the market, but fava beans remained their specialty. They also started raising chickens and some rabbits. They brought in horse manure from a local stable where no chemicals are used.

In their third year with Adelante Agricultura, Rafael and Juana wanted to expand their business so they began renting the space south of Gaston.  The business has been slow to expand and Tecum explains that it is because for small-scale producers, it’s hard to compete in the market. 

In growing his own produce, however, Francisco continues a tradition of his family of his native Guatemala. More and more people eat food that is grown close to home and chemical free, said Tecum, also from Guatemala. “Besides buying local produce," he said, “people are becoming interested in growing their own food.” 

Help Adelante Mujeres win a van on July 22nd

Hi everyone,

Please check out this message below about helping Adelante Mujeres win a van through an online competition.

Sometimes, helping is as easy as a click of the mouse ... 

This Sunday, July 22, Adelante Mujeres is in the running to win a brand new Toyota Sienna van, and we need your help! 

Our win depends on your VOTES. We are one of five organizations in the running on Sunday, and whichever organization gets the most votes will win the Toyota vehicle of their choice. We will use our new vehicle to transport participants to career days and educational field trips! 

You can't vote for Adelante Mujeres until the day-of (Sunday, July 22), but here are some helpful tips:

TO REMIND YOURSELF TO VOTE: 

1. Go to the Causes.com page for Adelante Mujeres: http://www.causes.com/causes/788046-adelante-mujeres/actions/1667552

2. Click the Pledge button and we'll remind you to vote on Sunday, July 22. 

TO VOTE: 
On Sunday, July 22 (between 7am-8:50pm Pacific Time), go to https://apps.facebook.com/carsforgood/. Click on Adelante Mujeres (next to a purple icon). The view of our Toyota 100 Cars for Good profile will expand, and you can check out our story and the video we submitted to enter into the competition. 

You'll also see the word VOTE appear under the purple icon. Click the word VOTE, and you're on your way! 

YOU CAN ALSO HELP BY:
1. Sharing this announcement with your family, friends and professional network. We'll need thousands of votes to win the van!
2. Announcing to all of your Facebook friends that you voted, and encouraging them to do the same. You could put an announcement like this onto your Facebook wall:
"Hey friends! Today I supported a great nonprofit called Adelante Mujeres by voting for them in the Toyota 100 Cars for Good competition. They are one of five organizations in the running today, and if they get the most votes they win a Toyota Sienna van. Please join me in supporting Adelante Mujeres by casting your vote today at https://apps.facebook.com/carsforgood/ " 

You can track our progress the day of the vote by looking at the voting percentages on the Toyota 100 Cars for Good Facebook page. 

Thank you for your support!

La Esperanza Farm and Forest Grove Farmers Market Updates

Here's some new photos of what's going on at La Esperanza Farm and the Forest Grove Farmers Market.

La Esperanza Farm
Weeds continue to be a challenge for many of the farmers, but the good news is that the warm weather has brought lots of growth for the crops as well.  Right now everything is in its "green" stage- green tomatoes, green peppers, and lots of green leafy kale, chard, and lettuce.  This week was the first week for one of the new farmers, Karina, to sell her crops at the farmers market.

Last week we also had a lovely harvesting and post-harvest handling class taught by Anne Berblinger of Gales Meadow Farm.  The farmers and Adelante staff learned a lot about when to best harvest produce and how to store it after harvesting to keep it fresh for customers.

I've spent a lot of time on the farm in the past week to help with the various volunteer groups that have been joining us to help weed and do other farm tasks.  It's been really enjoyable for me to help with the weeding and planting- farming is one thing I miss a lot during the school year.

Anne Berblinger teaching about harvesting and handling lettuce.

Green tomatoes

Salad mix

Chiles are a popular crop on the farm.

Filling up the irrigation tank from Gales Creek water.

Harvesting butter lettuce.

Forest Grove Farmers Market
We celebrated First Wednesday on the second Wednesday of July (as we had no market on the 4th), filling up main street not just with agricultural vendors but also with other small local businesses.  The market continues to be happily busy with the Market Sprouts Kids Club and the start of summer produce.  Remember also that EBT and WIC recipients can use their Oregon Trail Card or WIC checks and can double up to $10, a great program to stretch federal benefits (and to spend on tasty, fresh, local produce).

Most of my time has been dedicated to helping staff the information booth, where I help administer tokens for the EBT and WIC programs.  I also help explain the incentive program, Market Sprouts program, how to apply to become a vendor, and other general questions about the market.

Sabino of Amaro's produce with onions, radishes, and popular Mexican herbs.

Kohlrabi from N & N Amaro.

Sandro of Crawford's Nursery with a wide variety of berries.

Unger Farms sells berries at markets throughout Portland.

Anne (Adelante Agricultura staff member) and Karina (a graduate of the sustainable
agriculture program) sell Karina's produce at the market for the first time.

Pies for Peace sells pies to fundraise for non-profits.

Terrapin Pastries sells tasty gluten-free baked goods.

Tasting different market produce at the Market Sprouts booth.

P.S. An update on my internship- I'm heading back to Ohio on July 25th, and only have a few days of work left before then as I will also be heading to Eugene for my two-day "vacation".  I'll post a few more entries before then and a final reflection.  I'll be sad to leave Adelante Mujeres, I've loved going to work every single day!

Adelante Mujeres Celebrating 10 Years: Part 2 of 10

As mentioned in a previous post, Adelante Mujeres is celebrating their 10 years of work with the local community by highlighting important individuals who have helped make the organization what it is today.  Stories are published each week in the local News Times.  This week's feature is about a family of volunteers, the Rickards, written by Charles Drummond.

"A Decade of Dedication"

As they prepare to celebrate their tenth anniversary this fall, the staff at Adelante Mujeres attributes much of the non-profit group’s success to the hundreds of volunteers who have stuffed envelopes, programmed computers, pitched tents at the Forest Grove Farmers Market, pulled weeds and performed dozens of other tasks from small to mighty.

Among them is a single family which has collectively booked several thousand hours of valuable service. Louise Rickard, her adult children Joelle and David Rickard and David’s wife, Alejandra Zavala Rickard, can all trace their work back to the very first days of Adelante Mujeres.

“I remember attending a July 4th party in 2002 at Sister Barbara Raymond’s home, which was doubling as the Adelante Mujeres office,” said David, who claims to be the first family member to volunteer with the organization. “I noticed their pair of older computers and a printer and I offered to get them networked and running better.”

As Adelante has grown, so has its reliance on David, a systems administrator for Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center in Cornelius, to keep the computer and phone systems humming.

Alejandra runs a close second to David when it comes to being involved in the early days of Adelante Mujeres. The pair had met while he was volunteering as an English tutor at Centro Cultural in Cornelius and Alejandra was one of the first people invited by Raymond and co-founder Bridget Cooke to be a member of the board of directors.

Alejandra, a medical assistant with Virginia Garcia at the Cornelius Primary Care Clinic, didn’t hesitate. “I wanted to be involved with my own community and to be able to help other Latinos become a contributing part of society,” she said.

Joelle Rickard served eight years on Adelante Mujeres’ board of directors, including a term as board president. Much of her motivation for volunteering, she said, comes from her mother, Louise, and her grandmother, Hazel Whalley.

Now a busy 37-year-old mother of two young children and a teacher in the Forest Grove School District, Joelle still finds time to be fully engaged with Adelante Mujeres programs.

One of the programs Joelle is most passionate about is Journey to College, the newest initiative within the Adelante Chicas program.

“Latino youth have the highest dropout rate in Oregon and even fewer Latino youth continue on to college,” she said. “Journey to College promotes a pro-college culture among Latino families.” As an advisor, Joelle is helping to strengthen the partnership with the local school districts and area colleges and universities.

Louise Rickard took an early retirement from a human resources position at Stimson Lumber Company in 2003. “I retired at age 58 after seeing too many employees wait until they were 65 and then drop dead a few years later,” she said. While she had always been active in community work, it was when David and Joelle left for college that she really became immersed.

"I was suffering from ‘empty nest’ syndrome,” she said. “Life had completely changed with no children at home. I could clean cupboards and be bored or I could get out and help make some positive changes.”

When asked what some of her responsibilities at Adelante Mujeres have been, she referred to herself as the “volunteer grunt.” She defined that job position as stuffing envelopes, filing, creating computer spreadsheets and doing whatever other chores needed to be done in the organization’s Forest Grove headquarters, as well as helping launch the popular farmers market.

“Back then I helped do anything that needed to be done with the exception of putting up and taking down the vendor booths,” she said. “That’s way too much for an old lady.”

Adelante Mujeres isn’t Louise’s only volunteer activity. One of her favorite jobs is sorting books at the Forest Grove library for annual book sales there. “I love opening donated boxes of books and discovering what’s inside,” she said.

Cooke, the executive director of Adelante Mujeres, said the family’s contributions are inspiring,

“You could say that the Rickards have service in their DNA,” Cooke said. “Their commitment to improving the lives of Latino families in this community is phenomenal.”

Adelante Mujeres Celebrating 10 Years: First in a Series

As part of Adelante Mujeres’ 10^th anniversary celebration, the organization is highlighting a variety of individuals (participants, volunteers, staff, and others) who have helped make Adelante what it is through the years. 

 

These individuals will be featured in an exhibit at the 10^th anniversary celebration at the Forest Grove Farmers Market on Wednesday September 12^th (4pm to 8pm).  Come by to learn more about Adelante Mujeres and celebrate 10 years of work with the local community. 

 

Individuals will also be featured in the News Times (the local newspaper).  Here is the first of the 10-part series, written by Carrie Schmid, featuring women who started their own cleaning business after being involved in Adelante’s programs, including the Adelante Empresas small business development program.

 

Learn more about the Cleaning Wizards, after reading, here.

 

"Local group empowers a trio of entrepreneurs"

 

Clients of the Cleaning Wizards know the housecleaning trio of women will use organic products to leave their home sparkling. But they may not know that through their work, the Cleaning Wizards have achieved a dream that at one time seemed unattainable - self-employment.

"If you had asked me some five or ten years ago, I would not have imagined that I would be part of having a business," said Gabriela Perez of the Cleaning Wizards.

The journey to business ownership started in 2007 when Perez was a student in the Adelante Mujeres' Adult Education program for Latina women. There, she met co-owner Idolina Ibarra. The women were looking for a way to increase their income. Alejandro Tecum, an Adelante Mujeres teacher, recruited the women to participate in the MicroEnterprise program.

To raise the money necessary to launch their business, Perez and Ibarra sold food at local construction sites and traded cleanings for important items like a vacuum and liability insurance. Later, in 2009, they recruited the third member of their team, Margarita Plancarte.

Before Cleaning Wizards, Ibarra said, she was cleaning at a hospital during the weeks and working at a restaurant on the weekends. She experienced headaches and dizziness from the products she had to use.

"It wasn't easy," Ibarra said, but now as a part business owner she can choose organic products she finds more agreeable.

All the women say the experience of participating in Adelante Mujeres' programs and owning a business has changed their lives.

Adelante Mujeres is about more than just helping you to get a GED and find better work opportunities, Perez said. It embraces the whole person.

"They educate you in how to be a volunteer. They educate you in how to recycle," she said. "You learn that you are an important person in society."

Since their graduation from the Adult Education program, the Cleaning Wizards have continued to get support with their business through the Adelante Empresas program.

"The Adelante Empresas program was created in 2009 because the organization realized that if the Cleaning Wizards were benefiting so greatly from direct business development support, there must be other businesses owners who would also benefit," said Ali Brown, director of Adelante Empresas.

Today, Adelante Empresas supports 30 Latino businesses in the industries of green cleaning, carpet cleaning, construction and painting, by providing training, networking and technical support. They also support a variety of food projects through the new commercial kitchen project, Sabor Color.

Adelante Empresas also guides entrepreneurs through a 10-week business development course which covers the foundations of business planning and business administration, from registering a company to setting up a marketing and operations systems. Twenty-eight individuals just graduated from the class.

When asked about future goals, Plancarte smiled and said, "To have a group to work for me so I can go on vacation. Paid vacation."

Brown said the women are no strangers to hard work -- a value passed on to their children.

"One of my favorite stories about the Cleaning Wizards was at the Dia de los Muertos event two years ago," Brown said. "I was eating dinner with Gaby's three-year-old son and he was asking if I worked hard. I said that I try and work hard. He then responded with, "Well then how many houses do you clean a week?' He is proud of the hard work that his mom is doing and one day wants to clean houses just like her."

Farm and Distributor Updates

Hello everyone,

Things are really kicking in to high gear, just as I begin to see the end of my time with Adelante Mujeres this summer.  I'm headed back to the MidWest on July 25th, just after the launch of La Esperanza Distributor.

Farm Updates
I spent some time this past week weeding on the demonstration plot.  We also made great progress on the washing station, digging the trench for the drainage pipe and completing a drying table.

Digging the trench for washing station drainage

Weeding at the demo plot

More weeding

La Esperanza farmers meeting with a local distribution company

Building the drying table for the washing station

Drying table ready to be driven to the farm

Distributor Updates
The majority of our storage supplies have arrived (we have 160 roughtotes and nearly 40 coolers currently). We started the process of labeling, numbering, and preparing all of these bins to pass out to the farmers who will be participating in La Esperanza Distributor this summer.

Our awesome volunteer Adam spraypainting lids

Labeled and numbered produce bins

The worksite (aka the Adelante Mujeres parking lot)

A completed cooler