Palma School and its students have spent many years serving the needs of the farm workers community in and around the Salinas Valley. This year's food, gift, and coat distribution in Pajaro, California came with new challenges for safety. Months before, Principal David Sullivan accepted the challenge and began planning for this event with the director of Casa de la Cultura, Sister Rosa Dolores Rodriguez.
Casa de la Cultura Center is a heart that beats for the farm working community. It is a hospital for the sick, a pantry for the hungry, and a haven to empower the weary. Palma ASB and the Blessed Edmund Rice Society combined forces to bag and box a healthy variety of food for some 300 families. Chieftain students, parents, and teachers teamed up with grit under grace to sort, lift, and load. "Now," said one wise Chieftain, "it feels like Christmas."