Vesper Board Visits Imperial County
Vesper Society believes in a simple idea: a just society begins when everyone is well and respected as a human being. Every day, Vesper Society links arms with leaders of overlooked communities that want to create a healthy future.
Last month, Vesper board members immersed themselves in Imperial County and learned from community leaders. Board members gathered in San Diego, carpooled two hours east to Imperial County, and over the next three days, learned about a part of the state that many had never visited before.
We are grateful to our partners for welcoming us to their staff, board members, volunteers, and community leaders. You have seen their updates in our monthly communications: Imperial Valley Regional Occupational Program, Clinicas de Salud del Pueblo, First United Methodist Church, and Imperial County 4-H. They are anchor institutions providing essential services and working on long term solutions to create a healthy and thriving community.
Much has changed since the Vesper board visited five years ago in March 2014. The County has benefited from the general economic improvement in California, unemployment rates are down to 17%, and the number of people with health insurance has increased. However there is still concern about creating good-paying jobs for young people so they can stay in the Valley.
Our partners took board members to places in the Valley to gain a broader perspective of the context within which they operate. We visited the fence at Calexico, a border town. We saw the New River, one of the most polluted in the United States. We drove to the Salton Sea, the largest lake in California that is drying up and exposing toxic dust.
We learned about the Imperial Valley Food Bank that provides critical nutrition in a county where half the children are food insecure. It is paradoxical that Imperial County is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the U.S. It is the nation’s largest year round irrigated area at 500,000 acres. It is America’s winter salad bowl.
Next time you go to Trader Joe’s, check out the organic packaged salads – you may see “Romaine grown in Imperial Valley, CA” stamped on the bag. We in the cities are connected to rural areas in ways that many people don’t realize. We are dependent upon each other, our futures are intertwined. That is why we at Vesper care about the people, the community, the place that is Imperial Valley. We hope you do too.