Red Cross to honor Brown Bag Coalition’s Padilla
CALEXICO — For her selfless work to better the lives of homeless in the community, Brown Bag Coalition founder Maribel Padilla was recognized by American Red Cross of San Diego and Imperial Counties.
Padilla was selected as the recipient of this year’s Humanitarian Award, which she will receive during Red Cross’ 17th annual Real Heroes Breakfast on Oct. 11 aboard the USS Midway Museum in San Diego.
The Real Heroes Breakfast highlights the Red Cross mission by celebrating individuals and organizations across various categories, including military, first responders, law enforcement, animal welfare, youth and more — all from San Diego and Imperial counties.
Padilla will be the first recipient from the Valley in three years, with the last being in 2016 when El Centro police officers Adrian Hirales and Stephen Singh were Law Enforcement Award winners.
“We are thrilled to have a winner from Imperial Valley this year among the honorees,” Sean Mahoney, Red Cross regional chief executive officer said. “I’m looking forward to meeting Maribel at our event, where we will all have the opportunity to learn more about her efforts in Calexico and thank her for her compassion and commitment to serving others.”
The Humanitarian Award goes to a person or an organization that is committed to humanitarian aid efforts locally, nationally and internationally.
“Our selection committee had a tough decision to make, but Padilla’s commitment to helping the community every single day was impressive and inspiring,” Mahoney said. “She truly embodies someone who should win the Real Heroes Humanitarian Award, acting selflessly to help others in need and caring for those who may often be overlooked.”
In 2014, Padilla, along with Norma Aguilar, created Brown Bag Coalition, a Calexico-based non-profit that continues to provide meals, aid and support to the homeless population in the community.
Among its other work, the coalition has provided free meals to homeless 365 days a year for the past four years at Border Park on First Street and Paulin Avenue (previously the parking lot on Third Street and Heber Avenue).
Padilla, a life-long Valley resident, has received recognition in the past — including a county Board of Supervisors proclamation, Sure Helpline’s Woman of Iron award and recognition from IID’s Board President Erik Ortega — but she said she didn’t expect her efforts to measure up to anything being done outside the county.
“Because it’s San Diego-based and Imperial Valley, I thought, ‘Yeah, right,’” she said. “Then I get the e-mail from the lady, and I’m like, ‘Wow.’”
Prior to Hirales and Singh winning in 2016, a Valley resident had won only in 2014 (also for the Law Enforcement Award.)
“There’s lot of heroes here — I’m not the only one,” Padilla said. “We just need to get it out to San Diego and say, ‘Hey, here we are.’ Maybe with this, more people will be aware, and they’ll be able to say, ‘OK, let’s nominate soand-so for the next one.’”
A film crew on Monday attended Brown Bag Coalition’s usual 7 p.m. mealtime to record a video of Padilla that will be played during the award reception.
The crew was able to capture footage of Padilla, along with Aguilar and Brown Bag Coalition board members, providing dinner for the homeless, as well as free clothes, shoes, socks and toiletries.
What the cameras weren’t able to capture, however, was the years of effort Padilla has put into expanding the charity into what it is today.
“She’s the heart and soul of Brown Bag Coalition, she really is,” Aguilar said of Padilla.
The coalition runs its meal service solely on donations from the community and volunteers from throughout the Valley.
While each volunteer group chooses which day it wants to serve throughout the year, maintaining a perfect 365-day record comes at a price — a price which Padilla pays each holiday and triple-digit summer day that no else signs up for.
Padilla said she doesn’t mind spending Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s serving the homeless with her husband and two sons, as she’s built a family-like bond with the homeless men and women she feeds.
Brown Bag Coalition was created as the result of Padilla and Aguilar wanting to continue to help those less fortunate after the they had created an emergency winter shelter for the homeless in December 2014 in Calexico.
At the start of 2015, they worked with the community to create other temporary shelters at the Calexico Methodist Church and a tent set-up at Rockwood Park.
Once the temporary shelters were discontinued in February 2015, the two still had enough food left over to make about a week’s worth of brown bag lunches.
However, once the two announced they would be giving away the last of their lunches, the community continued to drop off food at their houses — enough for the whole month of February.
“We thought we were done,” Padilla said. “Four years later, we are still delivering to this day.”
Padilla and Aguilar also began holding resource fairs at the men’s shelter in Calexico, where free clothes and shoes, haircuts, showers and a sit-down lunch were made available to the homeless.
One of Padilla’s favorite Brown Bag Coalition events is a free posada dinner just before Christmas. The dinner has expanded from catering to just the homeless to now inviting senior citizens, families with cancer-stricken members and low-income school children.
A total of 250 attended last year’s posada.
“I think it’s become beyond the norm,” Aguilar said of Brown Bag Coalition. “It’s grown a lot.”
Padilla said she hopes one day to have an indoor homeless shelter out of which BBC can operate. In the nearer future, she would like to have portable showers that homeless can use during BBC’s daily food distributions.
However, in expanding the scope of her nonprofit, Padilla wants to take care to maintain its personal connection.
“I want to stay connected to the homeless, not grow and say, ‘It’s just a business,’” she said. “I hope to see it grow a little bit more, but not to where I lose that humanity touch.”