Su Conexión (Your Connection)

In total, we attended 16 food distribution events with The Community, Inc., reaching 400-600 people at each event, impacting a total of 6,400 people. For many families, transportation is a barrier, especially if they live further out from town. They depend on one another for rides to the events for food. For more immigrant families this year, enrollment in SNAP has become challenging and they no longer qualify or are able to apply for benefits. This means these food distribution events are often their only source of food. While our Promotoras try their best to inform the community about programs like SNAP and WIC, not all are eligible or trust the government enough to apply. We ensure to inform them of any other food events, free community dinners, and food for the holidays in addition to talking about SNAP. In addition to this project, we offered Know Your Rights classes to Latino immigrant families, offering assistance with family protection planning in case of detention or deportation. This has been a vital lifeline for some families, as challenges and fear of immigration enforcement have hit our communities hard this year. This project has been a way to engage deeper and tackle issues that often are inner connected, like food access and ability to apply for SNAP and changes with immigration law.