About Us
Announcing Our New Executive Director
We are delighted to announce the appointment of Friends of Fieldworkers' first Executive Director, Dr. Martha Martinez-Bravo. For the past three years Dr. Martinez-Bravo has served as the Executive Director of the Social Justice Fund for Ventura County. She was born and raised in Oxnard and is the oldest of nine children, from a Mexican-American family. She has great appreciation for farmworkers, as her father worked as a farmworker in Ventura County during her childhood. She received a bachelor's degree in Psychology & Social Behavior with a minor in Educational Studies from the University of California, Irvine, and a master's and a doctorate degree in clinical psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University.
Friends of Fieldworkers, Inc., is a non-profit charity established to befriend, celebrate and support families of fieldworkers in Ventura County.
COVID-19 Activities
- We are busier than ever during the current virus pandemic, coordinating volunteers, shopping for food and diapers, ordering and delivering masks, purchasing toys and games for children whose parents work during the day, and just checking in daily with the many Ventura County farm-working families we serve to see if there are other needs we can meet.
Food and Masks
- We purchased and delivered rice, beans, flour, and over 4,000 masks to farm workers and their families. The masks were all made by friends and volunteers.
Diapers
- Here Judy and a volunteer prepare to deliver diapers. Each month we deliver hundreds of donated and purchased diapers and rolls of toilet paper to farm worker families with infants.
Checking on our Families
- Our mission is to get to know and to become friends with the fieldworkers we serve. We deal directly with the families and check in with them regularly. Each family is different and each family has its own needs. Whether it's food, clothing, medical supplies, household supplies, transportation, diapers, education, toys or games, we try our best to help and support our clients during this crisis.
Post-COVID Summer Activities
- It’s hotter than earlier years in the Oxnard Plain and surrounding areas. Time to deliver more fans and to check in on our fieldworkers working in the hot and dry sweltering fields at 80+ degree weather. Though Ventura County no longer requires masks and social distancing inside, there was a HUGE rise in COVID cases in Ventura County this week, such that our local community colleges are considering mandatory vaccinations for all on campus.
In-Kind Donations and Volunteering
- We are sorry but we are not accepting in-kind donations until after the first of the year. To find out about volunteer opportunities, please email Judy at judy.fisk.lucas@gmail.com or call her at 805-312-0579.
Ojai Citrus Fruit and CSA Food Boxes
- Food Forward of Ventura County provides us with freshly-picked, organic oranges, lemons, Pixies and other delicious fruit. We deliver these fresh fruits directly to the homes of our client families every Wednesday. The Abundant Table donates bi-weekly boxes of organic fruit, veggies, beans, rice, avocados and sometimes eggs and honey as part of their Consumer Supported Agriculture program (CSA). These boxes are delivered to 14 of our families. And we just learned the grant has been extended for another year!
Thank You
- Whether you help through cash donations, in-kind donations, volunteering your time, or spreading our mission through word-of-mouth, thank you! We couldn't accomplish our goals without the help of supporters like you.
- By the way, we now use Venmo and Zelle to receive your gifts in addition to the donation form below.
- Recurring gifts of any size are always welcome.
During COVID
Food and Masks
Diapers
Checking on our Families
Detailed Activities
Weekly Deliveries
Recent Activities
Since the quarantine was lifted in June, Friends of Fieldworkers has done the following:
1) Continued to help a family of seven who lost their mother to COVID
2) Provided infant layettes and furnishings to four families with new babies
3) Built new raised bed gardens and provided yard clean-up through Aha! software company
4) Built subground worm composter for a family who started gardening in their own ground
and in their new raised bed two years ago
5) Connected a child with a tutor before she enters high school
6) Continued Grocery Security Net (GSN) begun in 2020. We ask each family what 15-19 items
they use every day--things they depend on for survival. (Typically, they have about 3-5 days’
supply now.) Food, bathroom and laundry supplies and gas for their cars. Based on what
they consume now, we calculate the cost of a three-month supply. About $333 per month or
$999 for three months. Twenty-five percent of that amount is for gas. So far, our GSN
program has
supported seven families. We hope to provide for many more.
7) Spoke with a group of residents at the Clearwater at River Park Senior Living facility about
what we do. They have since donated cash, clothing and household supplies.
8) Started two monthly Laundry Love programs for Fieldworkers at laundromats in El Rio and
Oxnard. Our families spend between $25 and $50 a week at laundromats. Our program
provides up to four loads or $40 each time plus laundry soap, conditioner, bleach and baby
soap, if required. Karen James and Pastor Melissa Langdell of All Saints Episcopal Church in
Oxnard are offering volunteers and financial support at the Oxnard facility. Jisela Ramirez
and Carmen Ruiz are leading the one in El Rio.
9) With the help of an old friend, Tracy Lu Guillen, owner of Esquire Property Management, and
the very hard work of our family mentioned earlier, R.A.’s family was able to move into a
rental home of their dreams with plenty of room for their whole family and for their garden.
10) Jisela Ramirez is the Community/El Rio School Liaison. She distributes food weekly to over
250 farmworker families plus all sorts of other necessities about every other month. In
addition, she holds parenting classes every week. We speak almost daily and funnel most of
our in-kind donations to her for storage and distribution. Please, if you donate to FoF, make
sure all items are gently-used and clean.
11) We paid the CSU Channel Islands University tuition for the fall semester for one of our
students who had a death in her family. She works parttime to support her family but has
had some reduced hours due to COVID.
During the 16 months from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, 2020, through June, 2021, Friends of Fieldworkers did the following:
1) Helped children cope while locked indoors as their parents work
2) Provided art and school materials
3) Connected some children with art teachers on-line (in Mexico)
4) Connected some children with phone buddies to read with them and chat
5) Sent children butterfly and ladybug habitats, and caterpillars and larvae to observe
6) Provided two laptops and two tablets to four children
7) Chatted on SnapChat
8) Sent birthday cards, gifts and even had a birthday party
9) Delivered books on the children’s interests
10) Provided a basketball hoop with backboard, weights, trampoline, jump ropes
11) Distributed hundreds of pounds of Legos
12) Helped parents cope, working in the fields, terrified that COVID or ICE will take them
13) Built 4’ X 8’ garden boxes in several yards, provided soil, amendment and plants
14) Gave special recognition (cards, money and floral arrangements)
15) Expanded monthly diaper delivery to 30 families with special needs children
16) Made and delivered approximately 4,000 masks to them and their employers
17) Delivered about 90 food and essentials boxes per week to families
18) Delivered Lawn Leaf Bags full of clothes, shoes, toys, linens, household supplies
19) Paid for rent, utilities, gas, and other necessities in a few cases
20) Began Grocery Security Net (GSN)
***ALL THESE THINGS WE DID WITH THE SUPPORT OF INDIVIDUALS AND GROUPS***
Please Donate to Friends of Fieldworkers!
