Parents in the Washington neighborhood of Long Beach have created a small fruit stand run mostly by local children in an attempt to keep them busy this summer and away from a recent spike in violence.
Father-son-duo Juan and Aaron Castellon created the fruit stand last weekend called Venta de Fin De Semana de Frutas y Verduras, or weekend sale of fruit and vegetables.
Aaron, 8, begged his father to let him sell food on the streets after he noticed a young boy selling tamales on his street along Pine Avenue, Juan said.
“I used to sell bread door-to-door in Mexico when I was a kid,” Juan said in Spanish. Sympathizing with his son, Juan woke early to buy produce in Los Angeles to supply his son’s fruit stand.
Since setting up the shop, Aaron and other kids from the community have made about $45 to $50 in one day working from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Juan said one of the kids used the money to buy milk for his grandmother and another used the cash to buy his mother a gift.
Selling fruit not only teaches the kids about being independent, Juan said, but it also keeps them away from violent activity that has recently been on the rise in his neighborhood.
“The first step to stop violence is at home,” Juan said. “We need to help them.”
Jesus Esparza, president of the Washington Neighborhood Association, said he’s met with multiple city departments since last year to address the violent crime that has taken place in his neighborhood.
Three weeks ago, Esparza came to face-to-face with a man who pointed a gun at him and his children while they played. The man left without firing the gun, and no one was harmed, but Esparza felt hopeless in that moment.
Thursday night, a man identified as Rafael Ariaza Ortiz was fatally shot while sitting in a car near the community’s middle school. Later that night, a man named Reginald English was shot and killed several blocks to the south near Drake Park. The shootings have made families afraid to go out for walks in the neighborhood, Esparza said.
Though the city is attempting to set resources aside to help the community, Esparza thinks it isn’t enough.
“I don’t see any progress,” he said in Spanish. “Things are getting worse.”
The only thing he said that seems to work is intervention from families that live on his block.
Esparza explained that when residents on his block notice that a group of kids they believe are involved in a gang are meeting up, families walk out into the street to converse with each other near the kids. This makes the believed-to-be gang members uncomfortable and they leave, Esparza said.
“The shootings stop and the dead bodies disappear,” he said.
Esparza views the Castellon fruit stand as one method of intervention, because he believes it keeps children and parents engaged in a positive activity. He hopes the idea can spread to other communities in Long Beach.
The family sells fruit on the weekends from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 1750 Pine Avenue.