Nonprofit hopes to spread cheer at Half Moon Bay farms where mass shooting took place
A nonprofit is returning to Half Moon Bay farms to once again hand out tamales to farm workers, but this year means a bit more for them as they hope to spread cheer after the tragic mass shooting early this year.
Whenever Kathy Chavez Napoli makes tamales, they always come stuffed with a heaping helping of nostalgia.
"I had to do this for hours and hours and hours when I was a little girl," she said.
Growing up working the fields of East San Jose as a child, making tamales was a family Christmas tradition.
"We'd be working on spreading it all day and just anxiously waiting to eat the first pot of tamales," she recalled.
But on this particular morning, she's not making tamales for herself or her relatives but for complete strangers.
Dozens of San Jose volunteers rolled up their sleeves this week to make 2,400 tamales for Bay Area farm workers struck by tragedy.
In 2022, a nonprofit called Farmworker Caravan delivered tamales to Half Moon Bay farms just weeks before the deadly mass shooting that killed seven people last January.
On Wednesday, the group returned to Half Moon Bay to deliver tamales to those affected by the tragedy.
"The farms that we went to were the farms where the shooting happened, so some of those people passed away and there was a lot of children that day, so it was very tragic because children witnessed the shootings," Napoli said.
Chavez Napoli said the secret to a good tamale is lots of lard, and one ingredient you won't find in the supermarket.
"It has to be made with love," she said.
