BAGS OF CHEER Salvador Garcia, Luana Brielle Garcia Diaz and Lucy Salazar prepare food bags, spreading cheer through Comida Navideña eve. Submitted photo
HUMBOLDT – CUMBRE Humboldt received a grant from the Humboldt Area Foundation Holiday Funding Partnership, which enabled us to provide Comida Navideña — culturally appropriate Christmas food—to 40 disadvantaged Latinx families in Arcata.
This effort was made possible thanks to the contributions of many behind-the-scenes helpers, and we want to express our heartfelt gratitude to each one of them. Maria Guadalupe Romero and Alejandra Ojeda Gamboa helped select the list of food items, which included ingredients for traditional dishes such as pozole, tamales, mole, and other meals commonly prepared by Latinx families during the Christmas season.
The dedicated employees at WinCo Foods assembled our large order and assisted with loading it into our cars. Ray’s Food Place generously donated 80 paper bags to accommodate the heavy ingredients, as each family received two bags.
The Potawot Community Food Garden contributed a bag of apples for each recipient, while DeepSeeded Community Farm donated lettuce and radishes to complete the fresh produce portion of the packages.
Victor Vega Burgos and Antonio Vega Burgos adorned each bag with beautiful Christmas-themed artwork, and Kimberley White also helped decorate the bags with festive ribbons. We are very grateful that Kimberley, along with CUNA, allowed us to use their Valley West Resiliency Hub to assemble and store the bags of food.
Salvador Garcia, CUMBRE Humboldt’s newest boardmember, assisted with picking up the ingredients and filling the bags with the 14 carefully selected items. Leticia Burgos helped deliver the 80 bags to grateful families in Arcata.
As CUMBRE Humboldt is dedicated to education and enrichment, we incorporated an additional component into this project: providing resources in Spanish to promote healthier ways of preparing traditional and everyday meals. This is particularly important given the high rates of obesity, diabetes and liver disease among Latinx communities, including children.
To support this effort, we have partnered with Jessica Rebholtz, a bilingual community nutrition educator with the UC Cooperative Extension. Jessica will lead a 5- to- 9-week nutrition education program in 2025 in Valley West. Each session will include an hour of nutrition education followed by a tasting of healthy, low-budget recipes. These free sessions aim to serve as a foundation for ongoing healthy eating initiatives in the community.
Additionally, the Blue Lake Community Resource Center (BLCRC) has provided bilingual materials to support healthy eating habits. We extend special thanks to the BLCRC for also supplying bags of commodities that we have delivered to 21 Latinx families in Arcata monthly over the past four years. This ongoing support has been invaluable, especially since Arcata lacks a regular food distribution program for families and individuals in need.
This collaborative effort marks a meaningful step toward improving health and well-being within our local Latinx community. We extend our deepest thanks to the Humboldt Area Foundation and everyone who contributed to the success of Comida Navideña.
To donate and learn more about CUMBRE Humboldt’s ongoing efforts please visit cumbrehumboldt.org.
¡Muchas gracias a todos!