From April 22 to May 3, the Hispanos Unidos Club held a drive for Talley Farms field workers. Items collected in the drive included food, clothing, and handmade cards.
“We were [collecting] materials [like] food, actual clothing items or working items like gloves and stuff,” Heidi Sanchez (‘25) said. “[The drive] is basically to help our local field workers and give them the necessary materials to do their job.”
Sanchez is the president of the Hispanos Unidos Club and part of Link Crew. She came up with the idea of a drive for local field workers while brainstorming for her passion project for Link Crew with a fellow member of the club, Nyanzali Meza-Rios (‘25).
“I really wanted to do something for field workers, so naturally the whole idea for a drive for them came to be,” Sanchez said.
Meza-Rios helped Sanchez plan and run the drive. They are in Link Crew and the Hispanos Unidos Club together.
“[Sanchez] has always been more passionate about helping people that aren’t really too appreciated in the community,” Meza-Rios said. “So, she came up with field workers—maybe we can do more for them—and I was really inspired by the project too.”
The drive was successful regarding student involvement and collection success. With collaboration from different clubs and classes on campus, students collected items and made cards for local field workers.
“We were able to get students involved, not just from our club,” Sanchez said. “We were able to raise donations and a bunch of cards in English and Spanish [for] field workers.”
Students in Ethnic Studies, in addition to club members, supported the drive by making cards for field workers. Club members are passionate about helping community members in need and channel this passion into action through drives and projects.
“When we do give the stuff that we received to [the field workers], we just hope it’s a positive reaction,” Meza-Rios said. “We put a lot of time into this, and we just hope that we can put a smile on their faces [by] doing something more for them.”
The drive for field workers was not the club’s only project. In the past month, the members organized both a drive for families in need and made bracelets for mothers in shelters for Mother’s Day. The club’s mission is to create a safe space for Hispanic students as well as support community members in need.
“As a [club] we all come from low-income [households], we are all obviously Hispanic, [and] we all come from different branches of Hispanic communities,” Melisa Mendoza (‘25) said. “[The club] is a safe place for all of us to relate to each other.”
The club’s purpose is to connect Hispanic students as well as support the community as a whole.
“A lot of the field workers in California specifically, 90% I think, are Latinos or Hispanic,” Sanchez said. “Hispanos Unidos, which is so focused on creating a small community here of Hispanic students and then also impacting our local community as well, played a huge role in [the drive].”
Members of the Hispanos Unidos Club work hard to support each other and the community. Through service and action, the club is making a difference in both Arroyo Grande High School and the wider community.
