Kerri WaldronA herd of kids round the corner from the schoolyard and break into a sprint down the sidewalk. Braids and backpacks bounce. Shrieks of excitement and chatter erupt. The boy in a lime green jacket leads the way. One girl breaks her stride to cartwheel. Others run together, holding hands.
“Wait for me!” the stragglers shout.
Finally, they reach the table of snacks where bins overflow with granola bars, yogurt-covered fruit snacks, oranges and apples. Juice boxes are popular, too.
Jason Hernandez, 46, the man behind the after-school snack program, knows all the kids’ names and asks about school. Before making his snack selection, one boy hands Hernandez a drawing of a Lego robot with red hair and says it’s a picture of him. He thanks the boy and laughs.
“I didn’t know I had red hair,” Hernandez says. He will add it to his wall of drawings and crayon-colored pictures inside “La Tiendita,” the small store behind the snack table.
The nonprofit grocery store and resource center opened at the end of September. It sits amid McKinney’s food desert where people lack access to healthy and affordable food, and it’s across the street from J.W. Webb Elementary, where the majority of students are on free or reduced lunch programs. The median income in the area, East McKinney, is $42,036, less than half of the city’s median of $90,272, according to the East McKinney Neighborhood Preservation Plan.
Hernandez runs the store, which has received grant funding from H-E-B, The Seed Project Foundation and The Rosendin Foundation, as well as funds from private donors and rotary clubs. All proceeds from the store go into funding community programs like the after-school snack program and the “essentials program,” which enables qualifying individuals to buy eggs, dairy products, fruits and canned and frozen vegetables at a discounted rate.
La Tiendita also provides a space for youths to gather and find support, as proceeds fund an internship program for high schoolers to teach them social skills, etiquette, financial management and how to operate and manage a small business.
“Thinking outside the box and just helping all those kids push themselves a little bit is so important,” said Jennifer Lidington, a school counselor at Webb Elementary. “Sometimes kids might not see their full potential until we empower them and help them see the possibilities of, ‘Hey, it’s not out of reach, and this is how you can make it happen.’ “
The store wasn’t always like this. Many in the community remember it as a run-down convenience store that sold alcohol, lottery tickets and drug paraphernalia. It was the spot people would go to fight and sell drugs.
It’s where Hernandez sold his first dime bag at 15, launching him into a drug game that landed him in prison by the time he was 21.
He was convicted on 15 charges related to running a major drug conspiracy and got a life sentence without parole, plus 320 years.
Remarkably, on Dec. 19, 2013, Hernandez became one of eight people to receive a commuted sentence from then-President Barack Obama. He was released in 2015 after serving 17 years and 10 months. Hernandez had made a promise to the president that if he were given a second chance, he would return to the community he once “corrupted” and make up for the wrong.
“It’s so much more than a store, and it’s more than we ever had growing up in this neighborhood,” Hernandez said, highlighting how development in the area has historically lagged behind the rest of the city, and resources, especially for kids, are hard to come by.
“It’s something that would have not only kept me and my friends from going to prison but would have helped us go to college and now it will serve that purpose for the kids,” he said.
Community members say the impact La Tiendita is having on youth is apparent and significant.
Youth learn cooking skills, start small businesses
Evelyn Balderas, 9, beams as a customer browses through her bracelets made with rainbow beads and rubber bands.
“Those are so pretty,” Betty Petkovsek tells the young entrepreneur. “Did you make those?”
Balderas nods eagerly as Petkovsek reaches for a bracelet with beads that spell “Be Kind.”
The soft-spoken fourth grader has been selling bracelets at school since second grade, but now her shop is official — her creations stop La Tiendita customers at the checkout counter. She sold 17 bracelets in November and received a $30 donation from a customer who wanted to support her business.
“The idea is we want to start doing a youth farmers market — finding kids in the community that have a skill set or gift or a passion to make certain things and helping them out, teaching them how to be young entrepreneurs,” Hernandez said.
Balderas is the start of that idea with “Bracelets by Evelyn.” La Tiendita gave her a $20 loan to buy materials. For each $3.50 bracelet sold, 50 cents goes toward La Tiendita and Balderas keeps the rest. She’s learning to save her money to purchase gifts for her family and to start thinking about saving for a car or even college. She has already used the money to enhance her jewelry with labels that read “Handmade with love.”
In La Tiendita’s small, corner kitchen, chef Heather Scruggs shows Pedro Cuevas, 12, and Junior Morelos, 16, how to chop vegetables and peel avocados. They’ve been working on mastering a mango shrimp ceviche.
“Watch what I do,” Morelos tells Cuevas as he squeezes a lime into the bowl with cherry tomatoes, cucumber, red onion and shrimp. They’re trying out recipes for what will soon be a small cafe that will help La Tiendita become partly economically self-sustaining.
“Junior has really taken to it,” Scruggs said. “There’s so many areas here where they can learn a skill. Culinary is one of them, but they also learn stocking, cleaning, running a grocery store, checking people out and customer service.”
Internship program to help students find their path
Morelos is the first of many high school interns who will participate in the store’s internship program, and while the program is not yet designed specifically for middle school students, Hernandez said he’s recognized a need for such support and plans to expand. For now, sixth grader Cuevas volunteers at the store.
“These kids want to be a part of something … That’s why I became a drug dealer, that’s why I joined gangs at a young age,” Hernandez said, noting that many children in the neighborhood face challenges at home and look for support elsewhere. “I wanted to be valued and loved, but I found it in the wrong place and it was a false love, but here it’s real.”
The nine-month program will eventually expand to include 15 to 20 students and will provide wraparound assistance to participants and their families to mitigate issues that could interfere with a student’s ability to graduate.
For the program, students have to have good grades and attendance and a teacher referral. Upon completion, students will be placed in internships.
“We find out what their skill sets are, their talents and we get them on that trajectory,” Hernandez said. “They don’t have to have that label of, ‘Oh you’re from that part of town,’ or ‘Oh you’re going to be like your brother, just like your dad, like the rest of those kids.’ No, you’re going to be whatever you want to be.”
‘A happy place for us’
The store is also meeting community needs: An outreach program shares information on home repair programs and how to get help with paying property taxes, yoga classes happen on Thursdays, a backpack drive got children ready for back-to-school, sandwiches and turkey dinners fed people during the holidays.
Hernandez leased the small house next door where financial management and other classes will take place. He plans to partner with the fire department, area nonprofits and banks to bring in resources such as blood testing, eye screening and cholesterol tests.
Eventually, his goal is to figure out how to replicate La Tiendita so others can do what he is doing for their communities.
Soon, grass and crushed granite will decorate the lawn and picnic tables will provide a place for kids to do their homework with Wi-Fi, as many homes in the area either don’t have access to reliable internet or the environment is too distracting for homework, Hernandez said.
“When I was a little kid, my mom never let me come over here. Now, instead of my mom saying she didn’t want me over here, now she does and kids aren’t afraid to come, they’re excited,” said Cuevas while he sat on the store’s front steps with Morelos.
The pair chat, laugh and snack on hot Cheetos. Later, Cuevas sets up a small radio on the steps and practices cumbia wepa — a style of dance that originated in Mexico, distinguished by hopping steps. He’s teaching Morelos, who joins in.
Here, Cuevas and Morelos say they feel free to be themselves and know where to go for guidance.
“It’s a happy place for us,” Morelos said. “Even though it’s a store and people work here, it feels like I’ve been here for my whole life. It feels like a family.”
Source: dallasnews.com
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