SAN DIEGO — Casa de los Pobres, an urban relief center in Tijuana, is the recipient of a Comunidad Award –– an honor that comes with $5,000 to support the organization’s charitable work.
The 14th annual Comunidad Awards, which recognize individuals or organizations whose work positively impacts San Diego’s Hispanic community, were presented Sept. 20 at Petco Park, shortly before the start of a game in which the San Diego Padres bested the Chicago White Sox.
Operated by the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Queen of Peace since 1957, Casa de los Pobres assists the local poor by providing food, clothing, medical care and other needed services.
Other award recipients included the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Parent Institute for Quality Education, Chicano Park, and Lifeline Community Services.
Each recipient received $2,500 from the Padres Foundation and another $2,500 from Cox.
Sister Armida Andrade, director of Casa de los Pobres, said that the Casa will use the funds mostly for food and medicine. She said that she and her fellow sisters were “very happy and very excited” to receive the award, and expressed hope that it would help raise awareness of Casa de los Pobres.
“Maybe some more people can know about us,” she said, “and we can receive help so we can keep the doors of the place open.”
Caroline Kelner is president of Casa de los Pobres USA, a separate nonprofit corporation that provides financial support for the center in Tijuana. She, too, hoped the Casa would benefit from the exposure.
Kelner said that having the award presented in front of 40,000 to 45,000 fans offered “a wonderful opportunity to increase the awareness of the Casa de los Pobres … and the amazing work of the sisters.”
She and fellow board members and several Franciscan sisters distributed flyers and spoke about Casa de los Pobres before and after the game.
Casa de los Pobres provides about 24,000 hot meals every month, 900 medical clinic appointments and medications, 560 social services appointments, and 1,850 bags of groceries, said Kelner.
The Franciscan sisters make two trips every month to the outlying colonias to deliver food, blankets and tarps, and they provide 32 scholarships for students to attend school.
“The sisters also provide hope and care to the thousands of people with love, joy and compassion,” she said. “All who come to the Casa are helped; no one is ever turned away.”
