A father-son story of service and connection in the Bay Area

On my annual trip back to the U.S., I spent an afternoon serving the San Francisco Bay Area–based non-profit Mobilize Love by photographing the inside and outside of their trucks. Mobilize Love exists to “show up and give hope” by deploying a fleet of mobile outreach trucks that deliver essential services, after-school programs, and mentorship directly to under-resourced communities. Beyond capturing the stories of those being served by this impactful ministry, I found there were equally compelling stories among those who serve—like Oscar.

Oscar and his son Diego were incredibly helpful, moving the trucks, cleaning them out, and getting everything ready for the shoot. As I worked, I realized the photos would be even more meaningful if they included the people who bring the mission to life. I asked if they’d be willing to step in front of the camera, and they graciously agreed.

Working with this father-son duo made the afternoon more than just a photoshoot—it became an opportunity to make new friends. Below is Oscar’s story, and how his work with Mobilize Love brings him joy.

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How long have you been working with Mobilize Love and how did you get started?

I’ve been working for ML for about three years now, but I volunteered with them for about three years before that—around the time they got started. My church began volunteering with them when they were coming to Oakdale Street where we were already running a food pantry. So, same area, and we just got involved with everything they were doing.

I kept volunteering  and at one of their big events, Love the City, they noticed my work ethic and recruited me to come on staff.

What is a typical day on the job like for you? During the school year, we’re doing maybe four days a week at different sites, bringing our Stage and Food Truck. Some sites get the Stories Truck. Typically, I’m buying supplies for the day, getting to the warehouse, prepping and cooking food, loading it onto the truck, then heading to the site, setting up, and either finishing the cooking there or just plating if it’s already done. Once everyone is fed, we pack up, bring the truck back, go through our cleaning protocol, and make sure everything is cleaned up.

When we’re not in the kids’ semester, it’s a lot of cleaning, organizing, sorting the warehouse, picking up donations, and distributing them to partners. Then there’s taking care of the various trucks: cleaning, gassing up, taking them to the shop as needed.

What makes Mobilize Love unique from other types of urban ministries? One of the uniquenesses of ML is just how mobile we are, our fleet of trucks and how they’re used. Also, the fact that we can partner with any organization, whether it’s a church or other nonprofit. We’re able to come alongside them and help make their event better with all the supplies we have: bounce houses, carnival games, cotton candy, snow cone machines. We collect donations, so at certain outreaches, we’re able to give away free clothing, backpacks, toys, and other items that come through our warehouse.

What motivated you to work and serve with Mobilize Love? It’s my passion for serving. I’ve been blessed by God in many ways. He’s healed me from a lot of trauma from my past, and He’s always been with me. My rent is always been paid, food has always been in my stomach, and He fills my life with peace and joy. My life isn’t the best, but it’s definitely fulfilling. ML provides that opportunity—to do so many things for God’s kingdom that may not always be seen, like all the food that comes through our warehouse that I get to distribute to partners feeding their people.

Meeting people where they’re at and blessing them with food is a powerful thing. There’s also being able to see Godly messages, whether in a Bible study or in an emotional, social lesson, and deliver those to young kids is a big, big thing. Kids soak everything up, so the more positive information they take in, that’s just a plus.

What is your favorite truck? My favorite truck is the Food Truck. It’s the one I run the most—not just drive, but actually turn on, cook, and serve from. That’s one of the funnest things: parking the truck at an event, seeing people come, serving good food to hungry people and they enjoying the food. It’s just an amazing thing, and that’s why it’s my favorite.

Tell me about a memorable moment with Mobilize Love? There’ve been quite a few memorable moments with over the years—putting on events from dozens to 2,000–3,000 people, and seeing how we pull it off with all these teams of volunteers. People get blessed with donations like clothes, shoes, toys, backpacks full of school supplies, household items, wellness supplies—hand sanitizer, toothbrushes, soap.

Also, just different people. I’m a huge San Francisco Giants fan, and we’ve had connections with players. Being able to work alongside someone like Buster Posey serving the community—things like that have really touched my heart. And being able to do this with my son next to me—such a great thing. I’ve been so blessed to be a father of such a great kid. Through my son, God has done a lot of healing in my life from childhood trauma.

Can you share a little bit about your relationship with your son, Diego? I had an alcoholic father who brought a lot of pain to our family. I saw things I wasn’t supposed to and didn’t have a positive role model. So manhood has been a struggle—understanding what it means. But having my son, wanting to break the generational curse, led me to learn and read a lot of books. They helped me give my son the kind of childhood all kids deserve—pouring love, patience, kindness into him. I’ve learned to be very patient and understand the stages of manhood, and what to imprint in him through each stage. I protected his childhood—called him a Disney baby for many years—and I’ve been present in that.

Me being present in his life—picking him up after school every day, attending all his games and activities, and trying to keep negative behavior away from him. I did, unfortunately, follow in my father’s footsteps and became an alcoholic, but I tried to keep that away from him as much as possible. God finally had a talk with me and said, you’ve got to make a choice. I chose to surrender alcohol to God, and He took the desire away. On October 30th of this year, it’ll be 10 years sober.

My son has seen that journey and that process. I was able to sit down and apologize for my behavior, for putting him in danger, and explain what was going on—that I was giving up alcohol for a better life, not only for myself but especially for him. That drew us even closer together. It’s a great relationship built on love and faith. He’s seen my walk with God, and that’s definitely had an impact in his life. This year, having him serve at ML three days a week with me has been wonderful. Working with him is always a pleasure.

What’s it been like to serve with him this summer? We work great as a team. He kind of knows what to do without being told, and it just makes me proud to see him jumping in, serving, and being part of the vision of ML and the Kingdom of God. I’m definitely grateful and full of joy. It’s made this summer that much better.

What’s something you’d want anyone to know who is considering supporting Mobilize Love?The thing to know is that the heart of ML is the heart of God. It’s to serve people and reach out to those considered less than—the underserved, the overlooked, misfits, and outcasts. People that are undervalued.

We feel that’s who we all were in our past, and God called us out of something where we didn’t belong. So now, we want to reach those still stuck in that same place. We want people to know there is hope. ML has a great vision and a great strategy—with a fleet of trucks that go to places others won’t. Places where you might not see an impact right away because there’s a hard shell. But love softens it. Presence softens it. And that’s what ML does—we show up. Love shows up, time after time.

All we want to do is share the love God has poured into our lives. We want others to wake up to that same knowledge. Our goal isn’t converting—that’s God’s work. Our goal is to show up and help with the resources we’ve been given.

That’s what I want people to know: ML shows up with the right heart and a good plan to make an impact through the resources and programs we have—teaching Bible lessons, social-emotional lessons, and showing kids from a young age that they are important, valued, and that God wants to lead them toward a healthy and successful life. That’s what Mobilize Love is all about.