October 2016 Newsletter October 2016 House Farm Workers! Working to promote safe, decent, and affordable housing for all Ventura County farm workers since 2004. Click image to see full e-newsletter: Recent Events: Here’s a closer look at our education and advocacy activities during the past three months. From Field to Fork Dinner On July 21 House Farm Workers! held the 6th annual fundraising dinner, From Field to Fork. The event brings together farmers who produce Ventura County’s agricultural bounty, chefs who celebrate that bounty on their menus, and the farm workers whose labor makes it all possible. This year, guests and sponsors raised a record $93,000 for the organization. Thank you to our very generous sponsors and attendees for supporting the work of our organization and ensuring that our farm worker families have a place they can call home. We could not have put on such a wonderful event without the contributions of our in-kind donors. We would especially like to thank Rick Brecunier, who provided the venue space at the incomparable Walnut Grove at Tierra Rejada Ranch and Chef Tim Kilcoyne of Scratch Food Truck, who orchestrated the entire dinner and enlisted the support of local farms and other vendors. Check out our Facebook page for more photos. Meet the 2016 Ellen Brokaw House Farm Workers! Scholarship Winners At the “From Field to Fork” dinner, we awarded the Ellen Brokaw House Farm Workers! scholarship to three children of farm workers attending college. This scholarship reflects our commitment to making sure our farm worker families can thrive. Viviana Avelar “My parents came here and worked hard and it doesn’t seem right to neglect that and just fall behind. A higher education is something that I want. My only hope is to be able to do as much for them as they did for my siblings and me.” A 2016 graduate of Santa Paula High School Starting at UC Santa Barbara in the Fall of 2016 Major: Spanish One day wants to be a Spanish interpreter/translator Loves her mom’s tamales and wants to study abroad in Taiwan Juan Magaña “I had the chance to work with my dad in the fields, so I know how difficult it is to earn money. It made me more appreciative of what my parents were able to give me. He abandoned his traditional life in Mexico, he left his dream, so that he could give me more. I hope to make my parents proud.” 2016 graduate of Santa Paula High School Starting at UC Irvine in the Fall of 2016 Major: Mechanical Engineering One day wants to work for Tesla Motors Loves swimming and Lasagna Daniel Garcia “I know that I want to be a high school counselor. I want to help other students that don’t know what to do to get into college. I want to inspire low income students who say ‘I can’t go to college because we’re too poor.’ But I want to tell them, it’s still possible.” 2016 graduate of Channel Islands High School in Oxnard Starting at UC Riverside in the Fall of 2016 Major: Psychology One day wants to be a high school counselor Loves to go hiking and his mom’s enchiladas Things to Know VC County Funding Update Earlier this year, the Board of Supervisors approved a $1 million appropriation of funds to go towards building farm worker housing. That funding went to three different farm worker developments that are in the process of being approved and built: one development in Oxnard and two in Ventura. The Housing Authority of the City of Ventura is the developer of the two Ventura projects: Rancho Verde and a redevelopment of the Westview Village. On August 17, 2016, the City of Ventura Design Review Committee approved the Housing Authority of the City of Ventura’s Rancho Verde project. Rancho Verde includes 24 affordable farm worker apartments that will be developed on the Hansen Trust site in East Ventura. Rancho Verde will be LEED for HOMES Platinum certified, net zero energy and will incorporate a grey water system. See the site elevations below. Our founding chair Ellen Brokaw and House Farm Workers! successfully advocated that the Hansen Trust site include farm worker housing. The Hansen Trust agreed to donate a site for farm worker housing to the Housing Authority of the City of San Buenaventura. Thank you to the City of Ventura and to the community members of Ventura for supporting this project, which will provide much needed homes for the farm workers of our community.