Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Go and tell my followers to go on to Galilee, and they will see me there.” —Matthew 28:10
Thirteen years ago, those words prompted Gloria Gomez to start the Galilee Center in Mecca.
She had just quit her job and was, in her own words, “scared, diabetic, unemployed, no income, and getting older.” She said she asked herself, “Where is Galilee?”—and soon knew she had to help the “poorest of the poor.”
Starting with $5 of her own money and a donation of $1,000, she and co-founder Claudia Castorena fed people in a shady spot in a Thermal parking lot.
“We thought the first time, only a few people would show up, but 100 came,” Gomez said.
Word spread, and donations kept coming in. In 2013, Galilee was gifted a dilapidated building in Mecca, which was renovated thanks to donations which “kept growing, because God wanted me to serve my brothers and sisters wherever they come from,” Gomez said.
Faith has always been a large part of Gomez’s life, she said. She was born in a small town in Mexico and lived in a mud house, but she always remembered her father giving to others.
“I don’t know where he got it, but every Christmas, he gave all the children peanuts and candy,” Gomez said.
She came to the United States with her farm-working family when she was 7 years old. First, they went to Texas, then Indio.
“I was bullied at school because of the way I talked and dressed,” she said.
Today the nonprofit provides meals, clothing, shelter and financial assistance for rent, utilities and basic needs, mostly to farmworkers, low-income families, seniors and the homeless in Mecca, Oasis, North Shore, Salton City, Thermal and other Coachella Valley communities. They also help asylum-seekers, who stay in a hotel before traveling to their final destination.
The center had set a $4 million fundraising goal for its expansion project—and that goal was met in late August thanks to a $1 million grant from the Riverside County Board of Supervisors. (Galilee Center had previously received another $500,000 from the county for the project.) The money will cover construction costs for a 6,000-square-foot building, doubling the center’s size and allowing it to host twice as many overnight stays, in two separate dormitory-style rooms for male and female clients. The new building will also have a multi-purpose community room. The new addition was needed, as demand has outgrown the current building’s capacity.
“The Galilee is here for our community and farmworkers. It makes sure our members of our community have what they need and can function on a daily basis, and give them what others take for granted.”
Martha Olvera, assistant director of operations at the Galilee Center
The Galilee Center recently served as an evacuation center for people displaced when flooding caused a breach in the Lawson dump retaining wall, releasing toxic chemicals into several mobile home parks.
Since the pandemic, the Galilee Center has become even more vital, stepping up when the community needed assistance the most, responding to emergency needs such as providing access to clean water, and keeping its doors open to the North Shore community through power outages.
“Having the Galilee Center in the Mecca community over the past 10 years has been a resource to the entire region, especially the farmworker community,” says Riverside County Supervisor V. Manuel Perez. “The Galilee Center is a resource that never existed before. The level of services our residents have, and the ability to quickly mobilize and provide a safe haven in emergencies, is due to having this vital partnership between Riverside County and the Galilee Center in place. Expanding the Galilee Center will strengthen our community infrastructure in the eastern Coachella Valley and bring great benefit and resources to our community.”
Martha Olvera, assistant director of operations at the Galilee Center, explained, based on her own experiences, how the center helps others. She came to the U.S. at the age of 3 with her farmworker father; he later became a gardener, with her mother owning a housekeeping business.
“My parents sacrificed everything so we would have a better life,” she said. “They left their country and family in Mexico to give us (siblings) more opportunities. … Recently, my dad told me about everything he went through with his older brother and father working in the fields. The money they made went to Mexico to pay for their mortgage, food and gas. The Galilee is here for our community and farmworkers. It makes sure our members of our community have what they need and can function on a daily basis, and give them what others take for granted. Everyone deserves respect.”
During the expansion work, the 66 workers at the Galilee Center will continue offering services to the needy, providing canned food, fresh produce, clothing, blankets, jackets, backpacks, infant supplies, senior services, shelter for farmworkers and more. The center has seen a significant increase in demand for infant and senior services in recent months.
Gomez sums up the work of the Galilee Center in another faith-based quotation, reminding everyone that our duty is “to love your neighbor as yourself, regardless who they are, and where they are coming from. They are all human beings.”
For more information, visit galileecenter.org.