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Worker Center rises to the occasion in hard times
Holiday Fund recipient helps day workers on subjects ranging from English to gardening

by Daniel DeBolt

After 13 years, many continue to find the Day Worker Center of Mountain View to be a useful place, filled with opportunity — even when there aren't many job opportunities to be had out there.

The center serves as an alternative to having large numbers of day workers standing at the corner of El Camino Real and San Antonio Road, waiting for local homeowners and contractors to come by with a paying job. Over 100 workers come to the center instead every weekday morning, arriving at the multipurpose room at Trinity United Methodist Church at Hope and Mercy streets, where director Maria Marroquin and her volunteer staff distribute work in the fairest, least frenzied way possible.

Workers are also able to attend free volunteer-taught English classes, and occasionally get free legal advice and medical help, among other things. Recently the center has decided to expand in a new direction with a grant-funded program to teach the workers how to do organic gardening.

That program, called "Victoria Verde" (green victory), will soon provide a stipend for workers who are trained by master gardeners in the ways of organic gardening. Local seniors with an unkempt vegetable garden or unused piece of land provide the classroom, so to speak, and in return a share of the produce. The rest is split between the workers and local food banks.

These services and opportunities help explain why the Day Worker Center continues to draw workers in large numbers, despite a lack of jobs in the current recession. Last Thursday, 125 workers came to the center to find only 15 jobs, a typical number in recent months, said Marroquin. By contrast, an average day in a good economy brings 60 to 70 employers to the center, she said.

The center is the first point of acculturation for workers who have come from Latin America. There are people here who lost everything in hurricanes, guerilla wars and famine. The center recently recorded some of their stories on its Web site, www.dayworkercentermv.org.

Marroquin has a story herself, coming from Mexico with her son for "economic reasons." She got her start by cleaning houses, but upon coming to the center "My life changed," she said, and it was like "the waters parted for me." She began volunteering at the center's office, and showed leadership by supporting the center and its related causes. She was eventually given the job as director.

Strengthening the center's connection with the community is one of Marroquin's major goals. Among other projects, workers volunteer their time in the Senior Center's community garden, and donate about 17 pints of blood in total four times a year, Marroquin said.

Her dream, however, is to finally have a permanent place for the Day Worker Center, which purchased a building to use as a permanent location at 113 Escuela Ave. last year. So far the center has raised $600,000 of the $980,000 needed to renovate the building.

As for the Holiday Fund donations, Marroquin said the center counts on that money for a portion of its general operating expenses every year.

Volunteer Natalie Ramirez, a student at Cornell University in New York, said she was drawn to the magnetism and the vibrancy of the center under Marroquin's leadership.

"She's amazing, she's the boss," she said. Ramirez, who is from Anaheim, recently took a year off school, "visited friends in the Bay Area, and decided to stay because I love the Day Worker Center so much."

As part of her work with the center, Ramirez helped champion the idea of Victoria Verde, which she said local senior centers have expressed excitement about.

"I really like the idea of bringing seniors and immigrants together because people shy away from both communities," she said.

Seniors interested in taking part in the Victoria Verde program can call the Day Worker Center at (650) 903-4102.

E-mail Daniel DeBolt at ddebolt@mv-voice.com