Away from the Desk

Away from the Desk is a blog created by Monterey County writers displaced from their jobs and work due to COVID-19. Our mission is to create compelling stories and compile resources for and about the people most underserved and hard hit by the social and economic effects of the pandemic.

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Unsollicited Advice for the Class of 2020 in your teens, 20s and 30s.

By Athena Fosler-Brazil, Christine Argueza-Prince and Marielle Argueza

As a first-generation college graduate and a veteran attendee of several graduation and promotion ceremonies (because all my siblings are smarty pants), I want to acknowledge that for the graduating class of 2020, this can be an intensely emotional time. You were promised to participate in a tradition and to celebrate your accomplishments in front of your peers, family, friends, mentors and teachers and a public health crisis took it away. 

There are tens of millions of students in the class of 2020 who will miss out on their graduation ceremonies in the United States. It’s a milestone that some have taken to recognizing online or celebrating out in the streets with neighborhood parades. Where it won’t be happening is out in the sun, in the hot fields and stadiums, or crowded gyms and auditoriums of their respective campuses because of health restrictions. 

But let’s not dwell on that. I speak from experience from when I say, graduating and moving from one phase of life to another, does not come from sitting in an hours-long ceremony filled with—let’s be honest—pretty bad speeches with hit-or-miss jokes and administrators with cringe-worthy mispronunciations of your name. I don’t even remember my keynote speaker’s name, just that her advice was to say “yes” to everything, which is just a setup for needless self-sacrifice IMHO. That speech was the most dreaded of things I really didn’t want to hear as a know-it-all 21-year-old: unsolicited advice. I was rolling my eyes the whole time.

So naturally, I and two graduates of 2020 are giving you unsolicited advice—hopefully better than my class of 2015 keynote speaker’s advice—to immerse you in the full-experience of graduation. Athena Fosler-Brazil is an outgoing senior of  Carmel High School and Christine Argueza-Prince, a recent graduate of University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Global Public Health (and also my oldest sister). Instead of asking them to write a commencement speech, I asked them to cut to the chase. What nuggets of wisdom would they give to their younger selves, and ultimately to those moving from one phase of life to another.

Without further ado here is your list of unsolicited advice:  

In Your Teens By Athena Fosler-Brazil 

1. Don’t let your peers convince you that caring about things is uncool. 

2. Stop pretending to like the music your crush likes if it genuinely sucks. 3. It’s really worth it to ask questions in class.

4. It’s okay to shed the relationships that are no longer fulfilling in order to make room for new ones. 

5. No high school relationship is worth planning your future around. 

6. You may not be friends forever, but that doesn’t make the friendship less valuable. Not everything meaningful must also be permanent.

7. Find a teacher at school who will help you skip “mandatory” pep rallies. 

8. Good teachers will change your life if you lean into your education.

9. Crying in front of other people doesn’t make you weak. 

10. Remember that your life will never be as easy as it is right now. Enjoy being supported and be grateful for it. 

11. Approach your education as a privilege and not as a chore.

12. You’ll stop worrying about what other people think about you once you realize that people are very rarely thinking about you. I mean this in the best way possible. 

13. Learn how to advocate for yourself. Now. 

14. Sometimes risky decisions lead to good memories and great stories. Sometimes risky decisions lead to trauma. 

15. Learn how to omit excessive “likes” from your sentences before you become an actual adult. 

16. Don’t make everything into a Big Deal. 

17. It is rare that you can successfully teach a shitty friend how to not be a shitty friend. 

18. Remember that you are only at the beginning. 

In Your 20s

By Marielle Argueza

1. Contrary to the informational pamphlet, universities can’t bring you the real world. You have to seek it out and live in it. 

2. You may never become friends with your parents, but you can forgive them.

3. Friend breakups are as difficult as romantic breakups.

4. Take off your makeup before you sleep and wear sunscreen. Every. Single. Day.

5. You are not your job, your major or your relationship. 

6. Wash your sheets frequently. You’ll feel better. 

7. No Karen, you’re not “honoring” your one-sixteenth Cherokee “heritage” with that headdress that you want to wear to Coachella. 

8. Learn to listen by shutting up and learn to respond with a question. 

9. The universe is not conspiring against you, but your priorities might be. 

10. Caring about the environment doesn’t necessarily mean going vegan and buying new shoes made of recycled ocean plastic. A lot of the time it’s revamping your consumption. 

11. Find your shade of red lipstick. 

12. Sometimes you’re different, but other times you’re average. Embrace both. 

13. Failures are almost always constructive criticism. Verbal and psychological abuse is not.

14. Look at your bank statements every single week. 

15. You’re probably using the words “actually” and “literally” incorrectly. 

16. Know how to order and make a cocktail that you like. 

17. If you want to travel cheaply and well, think small. Stay in neighborhoods and make friends in those neighborhoods, instead of generalizing an entire country. London isn’t the entire UK. Parisians are different from the Lyonnais. Cabo isn’t the capital of Mexico, Chad.

18. Assume you are never the smartest person in the room and that’s OK. 

19. Sorries aren’t reserved for the douche bag talking over you. They’re for apologies. For example: “Sorry, I’ll try not to finish this thought while you’re talking over me...d-bag.” 

10. Learn to be proud of yourself. You’ll find more validation in yourself than in others. 

In Your 30s By Christine Argueza-Prince 

1. Thirties are really the new 20s. “You get a re-do! You get a re-do. Everyone gets a re-do!” -Oprah 

2. By now, people you know will have had babies, are married (or divorced), and have a bunch of letters like PhD, MBA, and M.D. after their names. Measure your success with your own stick.

3. If you’re not using a calendar and the Pomodoro Technique, you’re not as productive as you think you are. 

4. Wit and grit will get you pretty damn far.

5. There will never be “a good time to have a baby.” Define your own timeline. 

6. Two words: email etiquette 

7. The time to start thinking about your next promotion is the day you get promoted. Don’t get too comfy. 

8. Have the audacity to put yourself in charge (see no.9)

9. ...you can start by planning and hosting a party. Preferably not the kind that results in two DUIs and a paternity test.

10. Public speaking is a skill to master. Know how to present without PowerPoint slides. Gasp!

11. Find a good tailor and hem your clothes to fit you. Zara didn’t know that you’re 5’2 and curvy.

12. Find someone to mentor. Then you will know if you are truly ready to lead. 

13. If you had a crappy day, it is not okay to unload it at home. If you must, it is wise to ask if people have the mental space for it.

14. Learn how to fight with your significant other without slamming doors and breaking dishes.

15.  If you’re feeling unusually moody, numb, or uninterested in the things that typically make you happy—please ask for help. 

16. It’s easy to become a cynic. This perspective is not your only option. 

17. Ninety percent of your groceries should come from the perimeter of the grocery store. 

18. Instant food is (mostly) gross. Know how to make your childhood faves like mac and cheese and pizza from scratch. 

19. No, chicken breast doesn’t need to be washed before cooking. But you do need to season them, Shiela. Remember this: lemon pepper is poison. 

20. If coffee is life, you should have a moka pot, pour over, or french press in your cupboard. On that note, grind your own coffee beans. 

21. Treat yourself on your own dime. 

22. Treat your health and wellness first. I am talking about that really good moisturizer, a 90-minute massage and a bouquet of flowers just because. 

23. A 13 percent interest rate for a BMW is not a good decision. Your paycheck should pay YOU, not Sammy the sales employee of the month. 

24. You should be on your own Netflix, phone, and car insurance plan by now. 

25. Take care of your mouth. Nothing is worse than your future boss or beau walking away because you have terrible oral hygiene. Colgate is BOGO at Walgreens, so is lip balm. 

26. As it turns out, orange is not the new black. If you must get a tan, go to the beach. 

27. No Ashley, you did not live in Europe on your post-college trip. That was a vacation and Europe is one whole continent. Also, Disney is not the happiest place on Earth. 

28. Know the freedom of traveling or eating in a really fancy restaurant all by yourself. 

29. You can always see how a (wo)man will treat you in seven years with a baby when you invite them over for a home cooked meal. If they’re dancing you around in the kitchen—they’re a keeper!

30. If you are not living that fragrance-free, pasture-raised, organic life, you’re not about that life. No, really. Read labels and know what can prolong your sweet life and what can kill you. 

From everyone at Away from the Desk, congratulations class of 2020. 

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Navigating Unemployment is, in a word, exhausting. Here's what to expect.

By Marvin Green IV

One look at the California EDD (Employment Development Department) website is enough to induce a migraine. It’s stressful enough to be in a position where you have lost your job and need to file for unemployment, but navigating the paperwork is a whole other level of pressure. 

When you lose your job there are a lot of things you want to get in line. You are likely looking at refurbishing your resume, scouring for available jobs, perhaps even looking for new training or school. But in the meanwhile you will want to get paid from the unemployment pool you paid into as an employed worker.

First, figure out whether you qualify for unemployment benefits. The California EDD website (edd.ca.gov) has four requirements that need to be met. You must be totally or partially unemployed. You must be unemployed by no fault of your own—meaning you weren’t fired for being late, or you didn’t finally work up the courage to tell your boss to shove it. You must be ready, searching for and willing to work—which basically means you understand that unemployment cannot be your income forever. Finally, you must have earned enough money over a 12-month period to file a claim. 

How much is enough? The state’s  Economic Development Department has a roundabout way of explaining (as bureaucracies do). But you need to have made at least $1,300 within a three-month period, or  if you make under $1300 in that time you must make at least $900 within the same time frame with at least $1,124 income overall over 12 months.

If you meet these requirements you may file a claim for unemployment benefits. You will want to go to the website to apply or to print out the forms you have to mail. Next you will click on the “claims” button. On the next screen you will scroll down to the “Unemployment Insurance” section and click “File a new UI claim.”

Two big things have changed as far as requirements for signing up. Previously you had to wait seven  days to file, but this waiting period is currently waived because—you know, we’re in a pandemic. You also are not required to look for work each week to maintain eligibility. Both of these are temporary exceptions until further notice according to the EDD website. 

There are a number of things you will need to be ready to answer  to file your claim:

Personal information, i.e. full name, address, social security number, etc.

Last employer’s information including company name, supervisor’s name, address (mailing and physical location) and phone number;

Last date worked and the reason you are no longer working;

Gross earnings in the last week you worked, beginning with Sunday and ending with your last day of work;

Information on all employers you worked for during the past 18 months, including name, address (mailing and physical location), the dates of employment, gross wages earned, hours worked per week, hourly rate of pay, and the reason you are no longer working;

Notice to Federal Employees About Unemployment Insurance, Standard Form 8 (former federal employees only);

DD 214 Member 4 copy (ex-military only);

Citizenship status, and, if you are not a U.S. citizen, information from your employment authorization document

*This was taken directly from the edd.ca.gov website*

When you have all of this together you are ready to file your claim.

There are three ways to file for unemployment. Fax or mail, by phone or online.

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Once you log in (or have your form), you will be prompted to answer questions about your previous employment and how you came to be unemployed. You must answer questions about previous employers in the past several years. You also must commit to being ready and willing to work, should it come your way despite the fact looking for work is not required at the moment. This is true for every form of application, be it mail, phone or fax.

After you have answered these questions your claim will go through some unseen channels and stay in the “pending” state for a bit. You may be asked to answer more questions online or via mail, should they be unsure about your claim. For instance, this writer had to re-do all the paperwork via mail because one question did not have a valid answer. So be careful as you fill all of these questions out.

Upon completion, you will be able to follow the progress of your claim online. Normally you can call to check the status of a claim, but this writer has found that each time he calls there are no operators available and they ask to call back. It will let you know the amount you will be receiving per week as well as any other bonus payments you may be receiving.

At the end of filing for your claim, you will be asked whether you would like a debit card (which acts like a standard debit card without limits, minus a fancy chip) or check. 

For convenience, I picked the debit card. Either way, it can take 2-3 weeks to receive your card or check. (Note, if you have filed for unemployment or disability in the last 5 years, you will not receive a new card. Rather you will receive more money on the previous card that you had. If, like me, you did not keep your card from the previous unemployment claim, you must call Bank of America’s EDD hotline to request a new card. This replacement card costs $10 and can be shipped in several days.)

Speaking of Bank of America, once you have received your card you must activate it on the EDD website—it will redirect you to Bank of America’s website and you will have found out that you now have an account with Bank of America for your debit card. From that account page, you can transfer money into your primary bank account if you wish. If you opted for the check you can deposit it straight into your bank account. 

Every other week you will be asked to fill out a form stating that you are able to work, you have been looking for work, any jobs you have applied for, and the status of those opportunities. Normally if you have turned down work, they will ask you why and you must have a valid reason.  

You will be able to receive these benefits for 52 weeks, so they normally will expect you to be actively looking for work. But as these times are not normal, EDD has nixed the requirement to actively search for a job, as stated above. 

When you do find employment that allows you to make more money per week than EDD pays you, you must cancel your claim by going to the contact tab in your EDD homepage. You can also call or mail EDD to let them know you are reemployed. 

This is how the usual process goes. Factors like how long you receive benefits, plus how much, can be disputed or policy changes can even shift because of things like COVID-19, so check updates and/or pay attention to your snail mail regularly.

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Baby Steps: Bringing a newborn into the world during COVID-19 isn’t just an adjustment for baby, it’s a shift for me too. 

By Marvin Green

I’m scared. At 30 years old, I lost my job and had to come home and somehow explain to my then pregnant wife that it wasn’t my fault. COVID-19 had closed many businesses by this point so no one was looking to spend money on the advertisements I sold for the local paper. The shelter-in-place order was going into effect that night.

My wife, 36 weeks pregnant at the time, was understanding, supportive but noticeably worried about the future. For the meantime unemployment would give me more time with my soon-to-be born son, but this was to be a very minor silver lining.

With the spread of COVID-19 things began to happen rapidly and what we thought was normal was ripped away. Before the shelter-in-place order was issued on March 17 my wife and I were both patiently awaiting the arrival of our son. So far, she was fated to have a  safe pregnancy with no complications. We did our best to stay healthy and active, going out on walks or to the beach. On our weekly visits to the OBGYN, we enjoyed hearing our baby’s heartbeat each time.

Then came the shelter-in-place order and our life came to a halt. We stopped seeing everyone out of fear of the virus, including my wife’s parents. We self isolated, ordering groceries and supplies online. Only leaving when we had to.

The week after the order, my wife and I went to see her OBGYN and they wouldn’t even let me in the room. They said it was too large of a risk. The week after that, they wouldn’t even let me in the building. I had been resigned to waiting in the parking lot the last couple of weeks for news about the baby.

By the time my wife went into labor, they were only allowing one “support person” in the room with the mother. This meant I was allowed in the room, although initially we wanted  our doula, and my mother-in-law. This was at first devastating to my wife. We had made all of these plans only to have COVID-19 rip them away.

We had as positive of a birth experience as you can have under the pressures of COVID-19. There were a few oddities Like some birth aides (bath tubs, laughing gas, etc.) were unavailable. The weirdest was having everyone we came into contact with—all the staff, doctors  and the nurses—wearing a mask. They could have been happy to see us, but in the most important moment of our shared life,  their faces were completely hidden from us.

Then came the mandatory two days of isolation in the hospital with the baby. I was tired. My wife was tired. We were barely able to function. At home, things didn’t improve to much. The first night back our son kept us up all night, crying to be held. 

It feels wrong. It feels wrong that something that should be conventionally so celebratory as growing our family cannot be shared with the world. So many people have come by to see him through the window, but there are no hugs or kisses.  No one gets to hold him except us. And no one knows how long it will be before he can safely meet the rest of his family. 

He will have grown so much—maybe learned to lift his head, sit up, or crawl—before any foreseeable visitations. There will be no one but my wife and I to see it. 

Then there is the future. I wonder what the world will look like to him after COVID-19. I wonder how I will change what I teach him life lessons like socializing or acting in public. I wonder about his opportunities or if any of society’s paranoia will transfer to him. There are no answers.

Regardless, he will grow. It may be in a world far different from the one his parents grew up in, as it perhaps happens with every generation, but he will learn and I will too, making mistakes and adjusting to be a better father.

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Connectivity Issues: COVID-19 shows schools just how wide the digital divide is in Monterey County.

By Athena Fosler-Brazil

As coronavirus sweeps through the nation, schools across the country have closed their doors and sent students and teachers home, forcing them to adapt to a new model of education. Distance learning relies almost entirely on the internet, as teachers deliver content and conduct class through various online platforms. For students without internet access at home, distance learning is difficult to impossible. 

According to a countywide survey of school districts and charter schools conducted by the Monterey County Office of Education, there are 6,590 students without a device that can access the internet and 10,721 students without internet connectivity at home. 

El Gabilan Elementary School teacher Gabi Downer has transitioned to teaching her first grade class through a variety of online platforms and says that of her 23 students, 20 have been able to access the resources she provided online, be it through an at-home internet connection or a public one. 

“Myself and several of my colleagues had already begun transitioning to this individualized learning using applications such as Google Drive, Clever and Schoology,” Downer says of how technological literacy in the classroom helped prepare her for remote teaching. For students without at-home connectivity, the school district has taken measures to provide internet access to families without it. 

“Our school and district has provided many of our students with devices and hot-spots, enabling this technological learning to continue at home,” Downer says.

Carmel High School social studies teacher Marc Stafford has also transitioned to remote teaching through online tools like Zoom and Google Classroom, but says that he has concerns about equity in access every time he conducts lectures or posts assignments online. 

“When this all started, each teacher was given a list of names of students that did not have internet access,” Stafford says. “We made hard copy assignments for those students and the assignments were delivered to them.”

Carmel Unified School District has been looking into setting up hotspots for students, but in outlying areas without any internet at all, this has been a challenge. No hotspots have been set up in CUSD, yet. Most of Stafford’s students have been able to access content online, and he says only a handful still need paper assignments.

According to MCOE spokesperson, Jessica Hull, the office of education has formed a Digital Equity Team whose goal is to come up with both short and long-term solutions to the disparity in internet access across the county. The team is made up of MCOE staff and representatives from various school districts, state and local government, and businesses including Charter, T-Mobile, Apple, Comcast and other technology providers. (Prior to forming the team, MCOE has acted as an internet service provider for rural school districts.)

Both Downer and Stafford are concerned about equity of access, and some populations of students are disproportionately impacted by connectivity issues than others. 

“I’ve spoken to my colleagues who work in more affluent districts, and they have had far fewer issues connecting with their kids,” Downer says. “Not only do children in affluent areas have more access, but by and large they also have parents with the socioeconomic status and higher education to be able to provide them with quality instruction from home.”

MCOE’s Digital Equity Team is continuing to meet in small groups and as a whole and hopes to come up with solutions to be implemented in the coming weeks before the school year ends.

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Supply and Demand: A Carmel-based nonprofit mobilizes their resources to help the hardest hit in Monterey County.

By Athena Fosler-Brazil and Ellah Foster

It’s 9:30 a.m. on a Thursday morning and roughly a dozen volunteers are busy loading up four Carmel Unified School District vans with 150 boxes and bags of food and other essentials. The group, This Club Saves Lives, mostly made up of district members and alumni—has been using the Carmel Middle School gym as their homebase for organizing the food items, all of which were donated by local businesses and the greater community.

When CUSD closed all campuses on March 13 due to COVID-19, Carmel High School health teacher Leigh Cambra and CUSD board member Tess Arthur quickly organized. They understood the implications of the closures and knew that many in the community would be left without essential resources. 

“Most of the people in our outlying populations are laborers and they get paid by the hour, and this is going to be a huge hit for them financially,” Arthur says. “We’re trying to do our part to soften the blow, because that’s where it’s going to hit.”

Cambra is the advisor for This Club Saves Lives, a service club at CHS. Due to the club’s status as a nonprofit, Cambra was able to receive donations through the club’s Venmo account. Additionally, there is an Amazon wishlist that is public for community members looking to send supplies. 

Approximately $20,000 has been raised since March 13, as well as thousands more in supplies directly donated on Amazon. The Food Bank for Monterey County, which recently temporarily closed its doors, is also donating the state-supplied items that would normally be distributed by the Food Bank. Currently, fresh produce and perishable goods are most needed, as canned goods have constituted the majority of donations. 

The project is managed almost solely by members of the school district, but they have attempted to expand the project outside of CUSD. No affiliation with the district is necessary to receive food items, Cambra says, and the team delivers to Cachagua, Post Ranch, The Big Sur River Inn, Ventana and Rippling River, a Carmel Valley subsidized housing community for the elderly and disabled.

“I’ve really enjoyed the whole experience because it allows me to do something positive with the extra time that I have on my hands now and help out our community members that are in need,” volunteer Serena Valdez Klemek reflects.

With the virus spreading in Monterey County, the group had to adapt, cutting back to about 20 volunteers in total. Although difficult considering the output, Cambra explains that they have had to find ways around in-person meetings, now getting together just two times a week and using preventative gear like masks and gloves.

Editor’s Note: Co-author Ellah Foster is a member of This Club Saves Lives.

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Thank you for your response. We are currently Away from the Desk.

Dear reader, 

When I think about how shiny and new this blog is and the reasons that compelled me to rope in some of my friends and colleagues to embark on this project, I think about the last time I truly felt proud of the work I did with people I trusted and respected. 

It was in January, when I was still employed at the Monterey County Weekly. I was sitting on a worn wooden bench during an after Weekly holiday party at the back of Pearl Hour, which only opened several months prior. I was sipping on a cocktail that I didn’t pay for, next to my editor and my publisher who were also sipping fancy cocktails. It’s a weird situation for me because I am someone who can recall a good meal and drink from ten years ago. From this, all I remember was the conversation. 

I don’t recollect what was in my glass except for maybe the ice cube which was melting too fast and that my knuckles were bone white from the cold. I remember my publisher, one of my three big bosses, looking at me and asking the simple question “Are you happy?”

Yes, I was happy. I sat with my bosses happy that I could on any day, walk into either of their offices and ask them for help, or tell them a funny story, or ask how their pets were doing. I was working for a company and with a team I loved and and believed in. And how many people under the age of 65 can say that? 

Then COVID-19 happened, or rather it had been happening and the U.S. was just then responding. I was laid off from the Weekly, along with one third of the staff. Pearl Hour closed its doors to the masses. My weekday routine was effectively destroyed. 

I could have easily spiraled into doing nothing—and yes, there are some days when that does happen—waiting out the economic impact of COVID-19. But I realized very early on nothing about being laid off killed anything of who I know I am: hardworking and dedicated to the community of the Central Coast. 

As I began reconnecting and checking on my friends, former co-workers and others, I realized they felt the same. They wanted to do something. They were hard workers, critical thinkers, decent writers and needed a place to put all that creative energy back into their communities. That is the strangely unifying thing about this pandemic. No one wants to rollover and be apathetic if they can help it. Everyone wants to help if they can. 

So a few ill-coordinated Zoom and G-chat meetings later, with weeks of preparation and reporting, a rag-tag bunch of disaffected writers and coders bring you Away From the Desk, a blog dedicated to covering the COVID-19 pandemic on the Central Coast. The name is a play on a generic automatic email reply (yeah, you know the one) while our writers, editors and contributors wait out the current storm and weather through the aftermath. 

Rather than inundating you, dear reader, with more of the same coverage from other local news outlets—which by the way you should totally be subscribed to and supporting anyway—our content strives to cover the people and places that will likely be undercovered and underserved, given the drastic shift to breaking news for most media outlets. Here we hope you find resources that you can use and share, and read stories about some of the most vulnerable populations during COVID-19. 

We’re still here. We’re doing something. 

Sincerely,

Marielle Argueza

One of many editors

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Monterey County restaurants are still open for business.

The brainchild of local food writer, Raúl Nava, this interactive list turned Google Map, is an ongoing compilation of restaurants, bars, tasting rooms and other food-related establishments with details on their operating hours and current services. The map is regularly updated and businesses can be added through Aid Monterey’s request form. 

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Under Construction: A young brewer halts construction on her upcoming brick-and-mortar.

By Marvin Green IV

Several weeks ago everything was fine. Marlene Garcia and Steven Corona were getting ready to open their brick and mortar brewery, sharing their beer with the public in a family friendly space. Sure there were issues with the loan, and construction was taking a little longer than they thought, but they had momentum. 

The 29-year-old mother of two is Salinas born and raised and attended  school at CSU Chico and USF. 

She had several different jobs during this time. But her favorite, believe it or not, was at Denny’s. “I loved interacting with people, learning people's stories, connecting with people,” she says.

She eventually moved back to East Salinas and followed her original dream of teaching. She valued the relationships that she made with the children and their parents.

“But, in my second year, I had this realization one day that I was kind of a hypocrite,” Garcia says.

See, Garcia had already been researching at this time what it would take to open a brewery. But she came to a point where she couldn’t live with it just being a hobby.  

That’s when she decided to start Brew N’ Krew with her partner Steven. “When it started, everything was going to our liking. It was a perfect path.” Garcia remembers, “Then things started happening.” 

She got a notice from her bank that the loan was put on hold for 30 days. They didn’t specifically state why, other than some vague language about what’s going on in right now. Now she isn’t sure how to react. What will or won’t happen? Does she need private investors?Garcia is at a standstill at the moment. Still brewing but with no way to get the beer out. Crowler cans are out of stock everywhere as breweries are looking to do the same. Construction is taking longer than anticipated. She praises the contractor for doing everything he can with limited employees and time. But altogether Brew N’ Krew was supposed to open the week that Monterey County put out the shelter in place order.

“At first we thought it was a blessing in disguise, but now the loan is on hold and everything is up in the air,” She laments. 

There are silver linings out there. It gives her more time to perfect their non-alcoholic drinks. On top of that, Garcia says she recently heard from a local business owner who is trying to get other businesses to offer affordable meals to families in this time of need. 

“Just having that conversation was huge, a lot of people aren’t in my position (to help), I’m so proud to be a part of this community.”

As for what others can do to support small business, Garcia has a few ideas. Seek out grocery and liquor stores that sell your favorite local beer. Patronize restaurants with local ingredients, and beer of course. It’s as simple as that.

For now, Garcia says she is waiting for the order to be lifted so she can see what the new normal is. “We will try to be as normal as possible. This virus doesn’t change who we are, we are still local people living in the East Side trying to make this dream happen.”

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Where to find free meals for students and children in Monterey County and beyond.

Just because public school campuses are closed doesn’t mean nutrition services have ground to a halt. First compiled by the Monterey County Office of Education, then added to an aggregate of Bay Area school nutrition services, this map is regularly updated and shows where children can find free meals in the greater Bay Area.

[awayfromthedesk]

Bartenders are out of work, but you can still tip them.

When the county first ordered sheltered in place, restaurants and bars could remain open with restrictions on seating capacity. But in the days that followed, limited capacity turned into take-out and delivery only, which then turned into bars being shut down unless they were also serving food. With a downturn in revenue, that has meant many bars restaurants have pared down their staff, leaving many service workers out of work, and in particular, bartenders. 

Enter serviceindustry.tips, which helps bartenders out-of-work receive a little bit of cash. The list is area specific and the system randomly selects a bartender of the day, for patrons to virtually tip. 

Help a bartender out in Monterey or Salinas.

[awayfromthedesk]

Weeks into sheltering place, Monterey County is still trying to figure out how to help the homeless.

By Marvin Green IV

On March 17, the Monterey County Health Department followed the lead of counties nationwide and instituted a shelter-in-place policy. The gist of the order: if you’re home, you’re safe and at the very least, slowing the spread of COVID-19. Simple enough, if you have a roof over your head, but exponentially more difficult if you are one of the hundred of homeless people without shelter, who have nowhere to go. 

“It’s going to have to have a big answer. It’s a big priority,” says Monterey County spokesperson Karen Smith. 

Whether homeless or improperly housed, it is incredibly difficult for those experiencing homelessness—and in particular unhoused homelessness—to keep clean. The county’s “big” answer seems to come in the way of porta-potties. Smith says they have increased the amount of porta-potties, sanitizing stations (basically a portable sink) and water stations (a place to fill up on drinkable water) throughout the county. Smith did not have any hard numbers on how many prior or additional hygiene-related infrastructure the county put in place. The cities of Seaside and Monterey have also put similar plans into place. 

While consistent and readily-accessible sanitation is not an easy answer during the pandemic, access to food has always been a problem for the homeless population. The need is only exacerbated during a time of panic buying and limited movement. “Numbers have quadrupled,” says Melissa Kendrick, executive director of The Food Bank of Monterey County. “We have had to reimagine everything due to social distancing.” 

While most agencies who offer free meals are still operating, Monterey Police Lt. Jake Pinkas says the National Guard has begun distributing MRE’s, or meals-read-to-eat, which are typically eaten by deployed soldiers, at normal feeding sites throughout Monterey,  as well.

“Hunger is a serious issue in this county, but right now it’s unprecedented,” says Kendrick.

But the bigger and more glaring question is, where can the homeless shelter and sltteep safely., Seaside City Manager Craig Malin says that the city will not enforce the ban on sleeping in cars, specifically at Roberts Lake. The lake is distant from neighborhoods and has hand sanitizing stations. The city of Monterey has also increased the parking lots available to the homeless. 

Prior to the shelter-in-place order, Lt. Pinkas says the city never cited people for sleeping in their cars, if no other shelter was available. The problem the city had to figure out was supply. “Because of [COVID-19] more places to park have become available [in Monterey],” says Lt. Pinkas. There has even been talk of using the Monterey County Fairgrounds as a shelter. “There has been an ongoing discussion, but that (order) would have to come from Sacramento (the state),” says Lt. Pinkas. 

Alexa Johnson from the Housing Resource Center in Salinas, a nonprofit that helps homeless families find housing says many shelters have turned into 24-hour shelters. Basically, once a family comes in, they can’t leave. “They have to stay there to make sure everyone is safe and healthy,” says Johnson. This can pose difficulties for families where someone is still working an essential job.

While Smith can confirm that the county is working at shelter options for those with no place to go, she isn’t sure what that will look like. “I know they looked at several sites, but nothing has been announced officially.”

The largest issue seems to be lack of resources to help the homeless. “We fed 600 families in South County today,” Kendrick says. “We are buying all of the food we can.” In the meantime those without a home will have to wait for a (semi) permanent place to shelter. “I expect something to come out soon,” says Smith. It has been 26 days since March 17. The order is set to end on May 3.

[awayfromthedesk]

In the soil, underwater and on the table. A look into small food production in Monterey County during shelter in place.

By Marielle Argueza, Nick Rahaim and Ivan Garcia

Standing knee deep in rows of fennel, Mackenzie Leek, a vegetable farmer, grabs a bulb by the fibrous stalk, pulling it swiftly from the soil. She inspects the plant’s pale green layers before pulling out a knife to slice off the uneven bits “Everyone grows celery here,” she says. “No one grows fennel. That’s why I wanted to do it,” she says.

Except for her fennel and some carrots, the growing is sparse, with half her lot unplanted for now. But organic farming takes time and patience—except maybe during a pandemic.

Before the economic shock of COVID-19, 27-year-old Leek, was in between decision making. Her two-acre plot which she rents from the Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association, or ALBA, is where she grows vegetables for her business Basanti Organics. But the small dimensions of her farm restrict her from expanding her business in different ways like opening a farmers market stall, or selling to restaurants. 

Most of her operations are wholesale to Coke Farms in San Juan Bautista, just like of fellow ALBA neighbors.The other, much smaller side, is her CSA deliveries, or community supported agriculture, in which she prepares a box of her vegetables for customers on a weekly basis. On top of that there was a time crunch. She only has around two more years on the land before her lease runs out.

By the beginning of 2020, she started considering shutting down the CSA. “I was seriously thinking about stopping,” she says. “It didn’t make [monetary] sense. I’m only one person on this farm.”

But in early March with shelter in place orders from the county, her subscriptions to her CSA shot up. She went from having 48 customers to 59 in a matter of a couple weeks, which is big for a single-worker farm. She attributes the rise to people’s reticence to go to grocery stores and farmers markets. “I don’t know, maybe people who used to buy their food at the grocery stores are scared now,” she says. But she also thinks it has something to do with an entire demographic who have effectively stopped participating in the mainstream economy: seniors. “Little old ladies,” says Leek. “Most of my customers are these older ladies in Carmel Valley. So I drop their vegetables right on their doorstep.” 

While business is good now, she is hesitant to celebrate her success, because it all hinges on uncertainty. “Yeah, it’s really weird. In a lot of ways it’s good for me, but I wonder what’s going to happen after this whole thing is over.” Sheltering in place, at least tentatively for Monterey County ends on May 3. 

Leek is a very small piece of the greater picture that is Monterey County’s  $4.25 billion agricultural industry. As food production is essential work during the pandemic, even she and her two-acre plot business, are exposing consumers—who may not have previously given a second thought about where their food comes from—to what it takes to put food on the table. In just a matter of weeks for Leek, it has meant making real-time decisions like keeping her CSA going, but it is also a waiting game. She’s not alone, every local food-related industry from local fishing to the burgeoning restaurant scene has been adapting, but also bracing for the impact that will inevitably follow. Many small businesses, like Leek’s farm, are predicting it will be very ungraceful on their part.

“People will really see how important it is to support local producers,” she says. “That’s my hope anyway.”

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On a sunny day in early April, Calder Deyerle motors his boat back to Moss Landing with a load of sablefish. He spots a pod of killer whales feeding on a baby gray whale. Schools of anchovies rise from the depths of the water and are closely followed by hungry sea birds.

After a decade of ecological flux, spurred by the climate-driven marine heatwave, commonly called the “blob,” followed by a strong El Niño, life on the waters of the Monterey Bay has settled back into a rhythm of normalcy. It’s on land where fishermen and women like Deyerle face unprecedented uncertainty as COVID-19 has left seafood markets in disarray.

“The markets are shot,” he says. “Most of the fishermen are shut down right now, they just don’t have anyone to sell their catch to.”

The small port of Moss Landing is quiet with restaurants shuttered, the normal flow of sightseers disrupted by orders to shelter in place, and marine science institutions like Moss Landing Marine Labs and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute closed. Commercial fishing is deemed an essential business, so fishermen and women try to stay on the water bringing sustainable, wild-caught seafood to consumers. Yet, how local catch is delivered to those customers has fundamentally changed.

Around 80 percent of seafood caught in the United State that is sold domestically is delivered to restaurants, says Noah Oppenheim, the outgoing executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations. With most restaurants closed the bottom has dropped out of the market. Some fishermen have kept their boats tied up because they have no one to buy their catch, Deyerle says. Others like Deyerle are earning less for what they harvest.

Deyerle hails from a fishing family and typically fishes around a small fleet of Deyerle boats captained by his father, uncle and younger brother. The family also owns the Sea Harvest restaurants and markets in Carmel Monterey. The markets remain open and the restaurants are serving food to-go, but business has slowed down significantly since the state imposed lockdowns to slow the spread of the novel  coronavirus.

Real Good Fish, a Moss Landing-based community-supported fishery that delivers boxes of fresh, locally caught seafood direct to consumers, has seen a sharp spike in business in recent weeks, says owner Alan Lovewell. But, the increased sales seen by Real Good Fish, and other direct-to-consumer businesses like Ocean2Table and H&H Fresh Fish in Santa Cruz, haven’t come close to making up for the lost demand from restaurant closures.

“There are fishermen who need jobs, they want to go fishing and there are still people who want their fish,” Lovewell says. “But without the restaurant market it’s still really tough.” 

Deyerle sells some of his blackcod to Real Good Fish, but both he and Lovewell say there’s more fish coming from fishermen than CSFs can handle. Another formerly lucrative market for Deyerle is selling live sablefish and thornyhead rockfish to Asian buyers in San Jose, but those sales have dropped off significantly. Most of his catch is now being frozen for the Japanese export market, but it’s less profitable yielding around a third of the value as local purchases.

There’s still activity on the Monterey Bay, squid have shown up and with them most of the California squid fleet, Deyerle says. Almost all of the squid caught in California is exported and that market already faced significant shocks through President Donald Trump’s trade war with China.

Most fishermen are now looking ahead to the salmon season on the Monterey Bay, set to open May 1. After four years of wet winters filling streams and allowing returning salmon to spawn, 2019 was the best salmon season in two decades. This year was expected to be another strong season until the economic impacts of the pandemic struck. Now fishermen fear there won’t be enough buyers to support the local catch and that the prices they can sell California king salmon will leave them in the red.

“Everything with COVID-19 is so fluid it's hard to make predictions right now,” Deyerle says. “But my main question right now is ‘what the heck are we going to do with the salmon once we catch them?’”

Organizations like the Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust have stepped in to try to connect consumers to fishermen in this time of crisis. The nonprofit has compiled a local catch guide where people support the local seafood economy while also providing themselves with a tasty, nutritious meal.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has forced restaurants to radically change how they do businesses. 

For Villa Azteca, a family-owned Mexican restaurant in Old Town Salinas, this change prompted an end to the days of packed dining rooms, chalkboard specials and mimosas for Sunday brunch.

Adilenny Alvarez, the daughter of chef and owner Susana Alvararez, usually manages the payroll and serves. Since shelter-in-place has prohibited in-restaurant dining her duties have expanded to taking orders, prep work and developing recipe ideas. The change is clear to her.

“Right now our business is totally different than when people were able to come in,” Alvarez says. “It’s obviously slower but luckily we’ve been getting support from takeout orders.”

That support comes in the form of take-out orders can't compare to the consistent business from being open. Though evenings, especially Fridays, garner a sufficient amount of orders Alvarez notes midweek, days are sometimes too slow to stay open for. 

One saving grace has been an increased use of the restaurant's Instagram. 

“We are managing by staying active on social media,” Alvarez explains. “This has given some opportunity for my mom’s creative side to come out.”

Susana’s menu receives praise for adding innovation to traditional Mexican dishes and she continues this practice amidst the pandemic. Recent posts on Villa Azteca’s Instagram include a tall glass of vegan horchata made from oats and coconut and beer-battered cauliflower tacos nestled in bright green tortillas made with spinach. Since the shelter-in-place orders took effect in Monterey County, their Instagram has averaged four new posts a day. The content isn’t relegated to recipes either. One post features an image of trays of rice and birria delivered to the emergency departments of the Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital as a display of gratitude. 

A March 27 video post from chef Susana explains the choice to stay open.

“As you know we are living in difficult times,” Susana says in Spanish. “My main concern is my employees and for them we are offering orders for take out.”

The initial announcement of shelter-in-place compelled feelings of uncertainty from some of Villa Azteca’s small staff. 

“The first few days it was really hectic here,” Adilenny says. “Me and my brother had to step up and take calls for orders because we had to cut on some floor staff.”

Now, nearly three weeks since restaurants have shut their doors to diners, Adilenny feels that she’s getting used to what is normal for now. 

A reliable access to fresh ingredients has helped ease the transition amidst so much change. Fresh produce staples like citrus and cauliflower are largely bought from Fresh Market Produce off East Alisal. And with business down due to closing the dining room, Villa Azteca isn’t suffering a shortage in its inventory. 

While the family behind Villa Azteca finds ways to remain open amidst this global crisis, Adilenny suggests ways the community can support their effort and their staff.

“The biggest way people can help now is just order from us if you can,” Adilenny says. “Because getting orders is what keeps us open.” 

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On one of the bumpy dirt roads that criss-crosses over the ALBA land, a controlled burn sends soft billows of grey smoke into the air. Two plots away, workers sit on the back of their pickup taking a break from planting, while Mackenzie Leek greets her nextdoor farming neighbor. They talk about equipment and he helps her load the wheelbarrow into the bed of her Toyota Tacoma. 

“Not much has changed for them,” says Leek of her neighbors and their working conditions. She explains that though there are now new workplace rules, sometimes it’s impossible on a farm to keep six feet away, or bring a clean mask to work when there are none to buy. 

She has options at least. She knows she can make an extra profit, even if it’s for the short term. Many of the neighboring farmers around her, who are undocumented immigrants, don’t have the choice of starting a public facing business. 

With few lucrative economic prospects, and few other businesses open and hiring, farming to supply wholesale buyers is their only feasible option to make a living. That means, explains Leek, they can’t stop working or choose to stay home safe. “What else can they do? They have families,” she says.

She can commiserate as a one-woman farm—she is both the boss calling the shots and 90 percent of the time, the only worker. While the pandemic has forced business owners to make decisions, often without any planning, she hasn’t lost perspective. Hardwork puts food on the table, no matter who is making a profit. 

She points to her neighbors from her plot. “They’re here from when the sun goes up and don’t leave sometimes until the sun is way down.”