As a clothing company, they’re known for producing practical garments for the great outdoors - and creating practical solutions is how Patagonia’s journey started when they first created a childcare facility onsite in 1983, at the then-small, family run business, headquartered in Ventura.
"We started with a trailer in the parking lot," explained Jessica Derby, the Program Manager for Great Pacific Childcare Center at Patagonia’s HQ.
It’s no longer a trailer – in fact, there are 10 classrooms catering to over a hundred children, said Derby. And the on-site facility is available for the children of their staff and she says, it really helps to support working parents especially at the critical time when they are first coming back to work after having a baby.
"A parent, particularly mothers, coming back into the workforce - they are close to their infant. They don't have maybe that stress and angst of not being able to nurse their child or be near them," said Derby. "Or they just are having some of that separation that they're feeling," she said.
In fact parents are encouraged to nurse or visit with their children during the day.
For working parents like Chris Lopez, it is so much more than a luxury – it is a necessity of family life.
"It's very much a necessity for working parents," said Lopez. "It's definitely something that we need to be able to feel comfortable with as well."
Lopez said that only having one destination for his two children was something that he "can't be thankful enough for."
Democratic Congressman Salud Carbajal of Santa Barbara toured the classrooms both indoor and out and among the Tonka Trucks and baby-kissing was a serious message: This shouldn't be the exception, it should be the rule.
"The child care crisis has really created a momentum and understanding in our communities and with businesses and families that we really need to do more," said Carbajal.
"Many employees have decided not to come back to work after the pandemic because it's extraordinarily expensive. It's as expensive as a mortgage, as expensive as rent. So it's been a real crisis that we are facing now," he said.
Helping working families is a priority, and – says Carbajal – the expansion of outdated tax credits has many benefits – including being a way for businesses to retain staff.
"What I'm basically doing is taking an existing child care tax credit that already exists on the tax code, and modernizing it. Lifting the caps like from 150 to 500,000 or 600,000," he explained. "Modernizing the flexible spending. Making the tax credit refundable so more families could take advantage of this tax credit. So it's not only helping our businesses and employers...incentivizing them to bring about more childcare opportunities and facilities for their employees. But it's giving working middle class families a childcare tax credit that they can really use to pay for their childcare and expand their childcare opportunities," he said.
And Derby from Patagonia agrees – it’s not only helped them retain staff but also is an opportunity to be a model for other businesses.
"We do have a pretty good retention rate once they enter into our program as an infant. Most of them journey through until they age out at third grade, and families get to be with us for their child's early childhood years, 0 to 9," said Derby.
Derby says that they don't just provide peace of mind and proximity, but help shape the values they hold as they grow.
"I think about the foundation that we've laid and supported them, so when they leave us, they go out into the world and they're equipped as these little social justice beings, knowing how to care for one another and out into the world. And that really gives parents a peace of mind."
Carbajal is hoping to keep up the momentum for his bipartisan legislation back in Washington.
