KEYLA VASCONCELLOS
Staff Writer
Bagged lunches, providing jobs on campus, interacting with friendly people during holiday meals, and helping plant flowers during Step Forward Day. All of those are all contributions made by Pepperdine University to the Malibu Labor Exchange.
“The University is Malibu Labor Exchanges’ biggest help recently,” said Oscar Mondragon, center director. He doesn’t worry as much about the future of The Exchange because of all the help as he has been getting in recent months.
The Malibu Labor Exchange is a community-based non-profit charity. The Pepperdine Law School, University Church of Christ and its Sunday school classes help out at different times of the month. In the beginning of the year, a team from Pepperdine’s Step Forward Day, a day of community service, pitched in.
One year students helped paint the trailer, which is used for the Center.
Mondragon, who lives in Los Angeles, begins every morning at the Exchange Monday through Saturday at 6:30 a.m. He gets to know all the people coming in for work. He puts their names in the database and asks for some kind of identification.
“Sometimes around 70 to 80 people come looking for work and most are not the same people everyday,” Mondragon said. “The workers come from very different countries around the world, including Canada, Brazil, England, Ireland but mostly Latin America.”
The employers come early in the morning, and in order to keep the workers from bombarding them, the laborers put their names in a bucket. The employers draw out a number and if they are qualified, they are hired.
A member of the University Church of Christ, Libby Perrin, is very involved with helping at The Exchange. She helped gather lunches for the workers, and before doing the bagged lunches, she would make them meatloaf, or a variety of different meals.
“The program went through a little reforming, because Sundays weren’t turning into the best of days (for food distribution),” says Perrin. “It could’ve been because it was becoming too late, and the workers were there at earlier times or there were just not enough people coming in.”
The date was changed to Saturdays at noon and, at the first Saturday in February, the turnout was terrific. Between 30 to 40 people showed up, including women and children. Most were Hispanic and didn’t speak a lot of English.
Perrin added that it is a way to “waken our community to better serve their need.”
Around 15 law students helped Saturday. “Anyone who wants to help out would be greatly appreciated,” said Pepperdine law student Ricky Steelman. “Even if it’s just bringing one person a meal it is worth it, since Pepperdine is so privileged.”
They brought all of the group bagged lunches. The bags consisted of turkey sandwiches, bags of chips, granola bars and boxed juices.
The Exchange helps them not only with jobs, but with clothes, shelter and food.
Not only does Pepperdine help on Saturdays but different programs also help on the holidays. The workers are invited to come to the university for a Thanksgiving dinner.
In a parking lot behind the Malibu Labor Exchange trailer, a school bus has been transformed into a shelter. The home owners of Malibu who founded this program thought it would be a great idea to find a way to enclose the homeless, since there wasn’t a shelter nearby. They rearranged the seating on the bus to make them feel more like beds. This way they would have a place to stay during inclement weather. They could enjoy hot meals and coffee while being sheltered.
Terry Bishop, who does carpentry work, has been coming to the Malibu Labor Exchange for a week. “I get here at eight a.m. and I’ve found work everyday,” says Bishop. “If it wasn’t for here it’d be hard to find work. They give an equal chance for everyone.”
Many women come to The Exchange looking for work too. Many are house keepers, who hear of the Malibu Labor Exchange through other friends.
Rosio and Rosa are from Mexico and they come to the Exchange every day around seven in the morning. They await house cleaning work, and speak very little English. They clean about a house a day, in areas including the Trancas and Santa Monica. Both came to the United States to make money, and with their money they send it to family in Mexico.
The Malibu Labor Exchange is located on Civic Center Way. The trailer can be found between the Courthouse and the Malibu Public Library parking lot. The Center is opened Mondays through Saturdays from 6:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. It closed on Sundays but provisions can be made ahead of time for people to find work on that day. If more people are interested in helping out they can contact the Malibu Labor Exchange by emailing info@malibulaborexchange.org to get more information.
04-23-2007