Late last year, our team marked an important milestone for LIFT Enrichment.
Gaby Rodriguez and Alex Sanchez, our program manager and program director, traveled from Honduras and El Salvador for a 6-day, 1,200 km trip across California, visiting schools and districts we partner with.
During those six days, the team not only deepened relationships with existing partners but also signed two new school district clients on the spot, a direct result of being present, listening, and building trust in person.
The trip covered Northern and Southern California, including San Francisco, Tracy, Stockton, multiple districts north of Sacramento, and the Greater Los Angeles area, with visits to communities such as Moreno Valley, Val Verde, Colton Joint USD, Lake Elsinore, Palmdale, and Inglewood.
When they got back home, we sat down with Gaby to hear how she got on.
“It was actually way better than we thought,” she told us. “I mean, we expected it, but it was way better when we were there. It was incredible.”
Gaby explains,
“It was incredible to meet people. Some of them we had already met, a couple of them last year when we went to a conference, but it was so great seeing them again, and the good thing about doing those in-person meetings is… there’s a lot more ‘humanness,’ if that makes sense, versus speaking through a computer. We had one client actually tell us, ‘I actually appreciate these in-person meetings a lot more than a Zoom meeting. Of course, Zoom meetings will happen, but I really, really appreciate these in-person meetings, so it was very fruitful.”
As Gaby pointed out, it’s about putting people and relationships first, which really was the whole point of the trip.
“You have to be in touch with them; you have to know if everything is going great. Thankfully it is. They were super happy.”
“We get to the meetings, and we just start having a conversation. We ask, ‘Hey, how’s everything going?’ Alex is amazing, because he’s in leadership, and he knows a lot more about all the changes, so for this specific trip he was also letting them know, ‘Hey, these are all the improvements. We’ve made these; these are all the changes that are coming; these are all the great things you’re going to see in the next semester or upcoming year.’
“I know we’re creating four new cookbooks,” Gaby says. “Alex was telling them a bit about the new recipes, and they were super impressed with that. We [also] talked a little about the new regional managers.
She sums up:
“I think any job, or any company, has to innovate. And people appreciate that.”
On the value of meeting people in person rather than on Zoom, she says:
“People do appreciate that in person, face-to-face. Yes, you can have a meeting over Zoom, and things will happen, and we have been proof of that. The company grew so much by doing all these Zoom meetings… but in-person is that human touch. Conversations flow very nicely; it just becomes a lot more personable and personal. So yes, it is something that people appreciate.”
Asked if anything surprised her about the visit, she said,
“The schools are beautiful. That’s the first thing. They were absolutely beautiful buildings. I mean, it wasn’t a surprise on a personal level, but it was just more like, “Wow, this is so beautiful; I love what they do for the students.”
“But one thing that did stand out that was common across the board was the passion they have to bring our cooking program to the kids. One point they mention, given that all of the students are enrolled in Title I programs in general, is that many of the children are facing significant challenges. Some of them are homeless, some live in shelters… and how the schools strive to create an environment where the kiddo is going to be happy, where the kiddo is going to love being there, and who’s actually excited. And not just with cooking, but with their afterschool program in general.”
Gaby went on:
“One of the things that impressed me the most is the common feeling that the program directors truly love what they do, not just because they’re teachers (because all of them, or most of them, were teachers at some point), but because of the love they have for students and to create a positive environment for them. That, to me, is one of the most beautiful things that I’ve seen.”
“They actually said, ‘I want to give the students opportunities, I want to give the students options, I want to give them a great program, I want them to be excited.’ That’s the word: ‘give, give, give.’ Bringing afterschool classes to the students so that they can learn something, enjoy themselves, and have fun.
As Gaby explained, this wasn’t something she saw in her native Honduras.
“I was surprised because in Honduras we don’t have that. We don’t have the afterschool program culture. It doesn’t exist here. Maybe sports, but that’s about it. Cooking, or robotics, or STEM, or all of that… that’s not our culture. So I think the surprise was more of the ‘Wow, I wish I had that in Honduras for the kids in my country’ type of thing. But that love—and this was something Alex mentioned—there’s a statistic that the most vulnerable time for students is between 3 o’clock and 6 o’clock, because it’s when the students are out of school and alone until their parents get home, often in charge of their siblings, and they can easily get into trouble. And the fact that people take the time to create programs to keep those kiddos safe, happy, and doing something—I wish I had that for my country.”
Finally, we asked Gaby what her role in afterschool enrichment meant to her.
She replied,
“I’ve been at LIFT Enrichment for two and a half years. I started in July 2023. I believe that this company has a very deep purpose. And just in general, afterschool has a very deep purpose. And if my job, whatever it is, visiting clients, giving presentations, sending proposals—can inspire one child, one student, to think they can become chefs and have a life after school, keeping them off the not-so-good things… I think that fulfills me as a person, as a mother, as a human being, as a professional.“
“It’s something I’m super passionate about, and that’s me on a personal level. If my work helps 1 child fulfill their dreams or inspires them to do something in the future, I am served. Because I mean, I am a mother, I have a son, and I cannot imagine what a lot of kids go through. Again, this is something that comes from the directors – they have a lot of kids that live in shelters, for example. And… it’s very difficult. Because their parents, unfortunately, are homeless, and they live in shelters. Or they don’t have such a good family environment. Or, they do have a good family environment, but parents have to work two jobs, and kids are left with their siblings.”
“Having them learn a life skill that’s going to help them—literally—for the rest of their life? That’s something that fulfills me. I love what I do.
And on that note…
If you’d like to bring afterschool cooking program to your school district, you can find out more about how they work and the government grants available to fund them by speaking to Gaby or another member of our team by clicking the link below:
Previous Newsletters:
The almost magical benefits of “ordinary” family dinners, Behind the scenes of filming recipes from LIFT Enrichment’s cookbooks, LIFT Enrichment and New York schools are teaching hundreds of children how to cook