Molina donates van to Spread the Love Charity
EL CENTRO — Spread the Love Charity has operated without a corporate vehicle since its founding in 2015, having relied solely on the personal vehicles of its volunteers in its homeless outreach.
This changed Wednesday as Molina Healthcare donated a Chevy van to the El Centro-based nonprofit to assist its efforts.
After a few words from John Kotal, president of Molina’s California Health Plan, and Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia at the Spread the Love’s facility on West Main Street, an unveiling of the new van took place.
After receiving the keys from Garcia, Spread the Love founder Jessica Solorio opened the van and unexpectedly found 600 donated water bottles and 600 cups of noodles inside.
“That was the bow,” Solorio said. “There was a bow on the vehicle, but that was the bow. That just topped it off. That was the cherry on top.”
On Sept. 1, the charity announced on its Facebook that it was in desperate need of water bottles and cups of noodles, as it was about to run out of its entire supply within a few days.
Estimating the charity goes through about 50 water bottles and cups of noodles each day, Solorio said it doesn’t have a set-aside stash and operates on a month-to-month basis.
“Every month, we’re struggling and struggling to provide the simple things like bottled water or a cup of noodle soup,” she said. “So to have such a lead with getting this is going to be amazing.”
Molina, which has been in existence in the state for nearly 40 years, likes to be involved within local communities, and chose Spread the Love as a beneficiary so that it could continue to serve people in need, Kotal explained. He said the van was one from its corporate offices that was no longer in use.
“We’re very excited to be supporting Spread the Love in this event,” he said.
Garcia, D-Coachella, attended the event as a supporter of Molina’s and Spread the Love’s efforts to better the local community.
He was the official holder of the keys.
“It’s kind of special, right? You get to show up and say, ‘Hey, you get a new car,’” Garcia said. “Something like Bob Barker from the Price is Right.”
During his speech, the assemblyman explained his commitment to help fight homelessness.
This year, the state Legislature has put forward almost $3 billion in addressing the homelessness issue throughout the state — funds that Garcia hopes to bring to the local community.
“We know how significantly growing this problem is in our district: Imperial County, Blythe, along with parts of Coachella Valley,” he said. “Putting forward $3 billion is a great testament to what the state wants to do, but making sure that some of that money makes its way to Imperial County is really the test that is before us all. For me, as your representative, it’s facilitating the work that needs to be done to successfully go after that money.”
Seeing Kotal and Garcia make an appearance meant a lot for Solorio.
“To see that the plan president came, that was just awesome from Molina,” she said. “And then for the assemblyman to hand me the keys to the car, it’s surreal. I needed to know that I have all that support.”
The charity’s newly acquired van will give Solorio and the volunteers a much-needed boost in their day-to-day operations.
“We all have our own personal stuff in our vehicles, and so when we go to the food bank or when we go pick up large donations, or when we want to go street outreach, it makes it kind of difficult,” she said.
Street outreach is important, Solorio explained, as not all homeless people in the county know about Spread the Love and it services.
According to The Imperial Valley Continuum of Care Council’s summary of homelessness in the county, more than 1,413 people are unsheltered.
Spread the Love currently feeds the community four times a week, collects essential items to provide to individuals and families (including clothes, hygiene products and shoes) and offers a variety of other useful resources for people who are trying to transition out of homelessness.
These services include family reunification, monthly wellness checks with medical professionals, rent and utility assistance, support obtaining birth certificates and identification cards, and various workshops and classes that help their members become self-sufficient.
“Maybe they just need a bus ticket,” Solorio said. “Maybe they just need a deposit because they have income, so we want to be able to really try and battle the homeless problem and take the ones off the street that we can.”
Along with battling homelessness, the charity wants to address the needs of homeless.
“Of course they need to be fed, which we’re helping with, and they need to be able to shower for the health of everyone — for them, for us, for their confidence, they need to be able to shower,” Solorio said.
With a recently-awarded Homeless Emergency Aid Program grant, the charity plans to purchase a mobile shower unit by the end of October, which it will now be able to pull around the county with its van.
“With those mobile units, we, along with other churches and organizations, are going to be taking that unit out to do street outreach and get them showers,” Solorio said. “We’ll get on some type of schedule where that shower unit is always out somewhere.”