The poorest children in this country—the children of farm workers—are never far from the mind of Schreiner alumna Manda Lopez ’92.

As executive director of the National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association (NMSHSA) near Washington, D.C., Lopez and her board of volunteers advocate on behalf of these children —trying to keep them out of the fields and in the classrooms. Migrant and Seasonal Head Start programs serve nearly 32,000 children of migrant workers and more than 2,500 children of seasonal workers annually, operating in 32 states in every region of the country.

“These children are the sons and daughters of a silent population in this country who are the hardest working and least paid. Their parents are truly the working poor. I believe that every child should have the opportunity to experience success in education and I think that starts with Head Start,” Lopez said.

“My job gives me the opportunity to share in the hopes and dreams of these children and their parents. It also allows me to do meaningful work on behalf of families who through their honest hard work put safe, affordable food on our tables every day. “Helping children of farm workers is my life passion—yet it is something I never dreamed I would be doing.”

Change in Plans
At Schreiner, Lopez was a Hatton W. Sumners Scholar, Student Ambassador, peer advisor and president of the Student Senate. In 1992, she earned a bachelor’s degree in history with a minor in Spanish. After graduation, Lopez started working for Any Baby Can (ABC), a non-profit organization that serves chronically and critically ill children. Lopez helped open the first Any Baby Can office in Kerrville. Today, Any Baby Can is one of the most successful non-profits in Kerrville. “Back then it was just me and my laptop in a minivan,” she said.

After two years with ABC, Lopez was accepted into the Texas Tech University School of Law in Lubbock. “I really thought that is what I wanted to do—be a lawyer. Turns out, I was wrong,” she said. Lopez left law school after a year and decided to pursue a master’s degree in public administration at Texas Tech’s Center for Public Service.

In 1997, Lopez earned her master’s and was hired as the Panhandle Regional Migrant Head Start director at the Texas Migrant Council in Lubbock—her first exposure to the plight of farm workers and their families. As regional director, she oversaw seven Migrant Head Start Centers in the Texas Panhandle and handled a $2.2 million budget. “That really was my big break. I felt very fortunate to get that job because I didn’t have any experience as a supervisor. But I sold them on my education, especially my four years at Schreiner. I told them I had been supervised and I knew what I liked. They bought it,” she said.

“The guy who hired me later told me ‘You had the least experience but you were the most qualified.’ What a compliment!”
After three years with the Texas Migrant Council, Lopez was offered a position with the East Coast Migrant Head Start Project (ECMHSP) in Florida. As branch administrator, Lopez oversaw 13 centers and handled a $10 million budget. After a year in Florida, she was transferred to North Carolina to become the ECMHSP’s North Carolina branch administrator.

In June 2002, Lopez became the National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association’s first executive director. Helping the poor Migrant and Seasonal Head Start programs serve children from birth to 5 years old. Because of the nature of farm labor, children of farm workers need full-day services—often from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and six days a week.

At the programs, children are taught the skills they will need when they start school, are provided health and medical services, and are served nutritious meals and snacks. “These children are suffering in the fields— they get run over by equipment, get bitten by snakes and are exposed to pesticides and the effects of the sun. The centers not only keep them out of harm's way, they give them a head start so they will stay in school and succeed in life,” Lopez said.

“The centers not only keep them out of harm’s way, they give them a head start so they will stay in school and succeed in life.”

Lopez said the biggest hurdle her association faces is securing the necessary funds from Congress. Based on a 2001 Department of Health and Human Services study, Migrant and Seasonal Head Start only serves 19 percent of the eligible children.

“We only serve one out of every five children of migrant workers because we don’t have enough money to help them all,” she said. “My number one priority is making sure that every congressman knows how food gets from the fields to our tables and how many children of farmworkers are unserved due to the lack of funding for Migrant and Seasonal Head Start. There simply must be a way that in the richest of all countries, we can find a way to serve our neediest children.”

Lopez also works to make the public aware of the plight of these workers. “Sadly, farm workers often can’t afford to buy many of the foods they harvest. The average annual income of these workers is $10,000, and they do not have health benefits,” she said. Lopez said she feels very fortunate to have the career she has. “It is really satisfying work. You feel good about what you do because these children really are the poorest children in this country,” she said.

Since Lopez started working with Head Start almost six years ago, countless families have crossed her path and left an impression on her. “I remember one time when I was working in the Texas Panhandle, one of the parents, Mr. Hernandez, brought me a 5-gallon bucket of jalapeno peppers that he had been harvesting. He left it on the steps of my office with a note thanking me for my support for his children. I later found out that picking a 5-gallon bucket of jalapenos takes about 30 to 40 minutes and for each bucket he picked he got $1.85. That means he made about $3.70 an hour. What a beautiful gesture it was for him to share his harvest with me.”

Mr. Hernandez and his bucket of jalapenos is only one of countless tokens of appreciation Lopez has received through the years. Paintings, drawings and poems expressing gratitude decorate the walls of her office. “I am constantly reminded of how blessed I am to have a job where doing right by children and families is so greatly appreciated by parents who are in search of a better life and opportunities for their children.”


< Left, Manda Lopez ’92 (left)
was the featured speaker
at the Sumners banquet
on April 9. Her twin sister, Janda ’92, introduced her.


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