The Chicano Federation partnered with This is About Humanity to host a “Summer Fun” drive-through distribution for families in need at Southwestern College on July 10. The goal, to provide families with needed supplies when most children are out of school for the summer and their families that need additional resources.
Families received summer supplies, toys, books, food, gift cards, diapers and other resources, with support of Molina Health Care, Cal Coast Credit Union, It’s All About the Kids, Learn4Life, and the Allgire Foundation.
Chicano Federation of San Diego CEO Nancy Maldonado said throughout the pandemic, the Chicano Federation has been conducting distributions based on what families were telling them they needed.
“One of the things that we are starting to see as we reopen and hopefully coming out of this pandemic, is that people are forgetting that there are still real needs,” she said.
“Families are still in need of many supplies and support. So, we want to make sure that we are still keeping their needs at the forefront and that we are still looking at what we can do to better serve our community.”
Maldonado said part of what they heard going into the summer is that this is an important time for kids who have been shut in at home for a long time, so it decided to do a Summer Fun distribution that really focused on kids but still provided basic necessities that families are still in need of.
“We called on all of our partners that always come through for us and we had sunscreen, swimsuits, summer toys, but also food, hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes, and PPE, because people still need that,” she said. “It was a really great event and we saw about 300 families that came through that day. We also tried to make it really fun for the kids. We had characters out there, a DJ, music, and even though it was hot, we stayed out there all day and our teams were out there providing lots of entertainment, lots of fun, and distributing the supplies that we gathered.”
Maldonado said that there are two things that it still needs in continuing its distribution to families throughout the county.
“The more partners that we can bring on that are able to provide items, for example for this event, we got thousands of boxes of sunscreen, books from the Ricky Martin Foundation, so we are in need of partners that can provide supplies,” she said. “They can contact the Chicano Federation by going to our website and calling us. For people that need these supplies and want to sign up just follow us on social media. We do post a link and it is sign up only.”
Maldonado said that Southwestern College is a good partner for them, and their parking lot is accessible for a large distribution like this.
“We partner with many others, as we do supply families across San Diego County.
To learn more about the Chicano Federation of San Diego visit www.chicanofederation.org, follow it on Twitter @chicanofed and on Facebook @facebook.com/chicanofed.
