Elodia (Gloria) is from Durango, Mexico. The middle child of 12 children, she came to the US in 1961 as a migrant worker from Mexico, following the crops from Texas to Florida to Illinois and finally settling in Oxnard. She has been a Manager at Pleasant Valley Mobile Home Park since 1985.

Gloria has gone “above and beyond” throughout the years setting up community events for the people in her community. Some of these events are weekly produce, clothing, shoes and household item collections and distributions, holiday and seasonal events, toy, jacket and blanket drives, many with support from Friends of Fieldworkers and other donors. Approximately 50-60 families come from the neighborhood every Tuesday evening to choose from the items provided. Gloria also holds events for the neighborhood children, such as relay races and a Little Library at the bus stop near her home.

In addition, Gloria helped organize and establish the Community Roots Garden in North Oxnard in 2009 and works there nearly every Saturday, caring for the garden and welcoming volunteers. She also helps organize children’s outreach programs held at the garden.

Gloria’s dream was to create a community composting/recycling project in her trailer park in South Oxnard. ALEx gave her money to start this project– pay a driver to collect families’ kitchen scraps, deliver them to the community garden, working the compost and then, delivering this rich black gold back to the families to use in their home gardens. She also plans to hold composting and recycling classes for participants and to introduce families to the community garden, a source of organic food, exercise, gardening education and community-building.