Catholic Charities of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties

DUROVILLE, CA -As the trucks filled with food rolled into Desert Mobile Home Park, better known as Duroville, there was a sense of hope for the residents. With 271 trailers and located only miles from the Salton Sea in the eastern Coachella Valley, Duroville is an anomaly in the land of plenty.

Duroville is a well-known trailer park in Thermal that expands from 2,000 to 6,000 people depending on the crops in season. Most of the residents are Mexican Indian migrant workers. Most work in the fields. All pay about $500 a month per trailer for rent. Even though most of the trailers appear ramshackle and substandard, “Duros” as it is called is undeniably a community to the families who live there.

Though the residents of the trailer park endure extreme living conditions, on June 17th, seventy plus volunteers brought hope in the form of two boxes of non-perishable foods and a third box filled with rice to each trailer. Family resources are sparse in this community, so food makes a big difference. The commitment of so many caring people to bring groceries to this community was received by the residents with smiles and thanks. It is estimated that over 1,600 residents benefited from the trailer by trailer food distribution effort. .

Behind this extraordinary challenge of getting food to this isolated community is a well organized partnership. Key partners in the food outreach effort include Catholic Charities, Martha’s Village & Kitchen, Sacred Heart Parish, Diocese of San Bernardino, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Duroville Bible Study Camp and other community service groups. Ken F. Sawa, CEO of Catholic Charities, commented on the partnership, “Catholic Charities has wanted to expand our Food Distribution Program in Mecca to the families living in Duros for a long time. I’m so grateful for the model partnership that was made possible by the desert organizations and churches, especially due to the generosity of Sacred Heart Parish and the private donors who purchased the food.

”The food outreach effort is coordinated by Sr. Kay Wagner of Catholic Charities and Jay Mueller of Sacred Heart Parish. Phase one of the outreach includes breaking down the pallets of food in a warehouse, repackaging the various foods into boxes, and loading over 800 boxes on trucks. Phase two is the on-site delivering of the food to the families at their trailers – one trailer at a time. According to Sr. Kay Wagner, O.S.F., of Catholic Charities, “Our goal is to deliver 42,000 lbs of food monthly over the next 24 months.” For additional information or to find how you can help, contact Sr. Kay at Catholic Charities at (760) 568-5101