While a group of children sings and plays at a childcare facility in Santa Barbara, the adults who take care of them worry about the high cost of living in the area.
She described the work they do and the challenges they’re facing to Democratic Congressman Salud Carbajal of Santa Barbara, on Friday.
"Breaking cycles of poverty and trauma is at the root of our mission, creating true social change," said Garcia.
"It was a perfect, awful storm of resources being cut."
Tess Ortega, Development Director for Storyteller, explained to Carbajal how cuts to SNAP had trickled down to impact their own food pantry.
"We had a long-standing partnership with Food Bank that, unfortunately, because they received funding cuts, was unable to continue their program with us. As far as our families go, about 60% are on SNAP, and 92% are in some other form of food program," she said.
"So a double whammy," pointed out Carbajal.
"It was a perfect, awful storm of resources being cut," said Ortega.
This is just one stop for Carbajal in a three-day 'Affordability Tour' of the Central Coast.
Or should that be an unaffordability tour?
"It's depressing to see that the devastating cuts from the Big Ugly Bill and so many other cuts that have been made by this administration are really hurting families throughout the country and here on the Central Coast in such a dire way," said Carbajal.
"Everybody is experiencing this devastating tsunami of cost that is just hurting our families and our communities. And it's devastating to see everybody hurting. It's unfathomable."
"I and my colleagues are fighting every day to stop this train that has picked up speed, and we are just trying to slow it down, trying to stop it in so many ways. And when I say train, I mean Trump," he said.
There are 148 children enrolled across Storytellers' sites in the county, with nearly as many on the waiting list. 45 of those families are experiencing homelessness, 86% of the families earn less than $30,000 annually, in a county that ranks as one of the least affordable in the country.
"We are seeing this administration enriching themselves, and we're seeing all the corruption by this administration, and so many of those at the top are doing great, but it's those that are most vulnerable and at the lower rung of our economic society that are hurting the most," said Carbajal.
"Here in this program, they're serving the most vulnerable families and children, and they are the ones that are not just being hurt, they're being eviscerated in terms of their quality of life."
"It's about cheating our country of a better future because our children are not going to thrive and succeed, live up to their potential, and live that American dream," he said.
And these adults are fighting harder than ever to make sure these children have the chance to just be children.
