Erika Borrego was not actively looking for a new job, but she had “made a list in my heart,” she said, that outlined the characteristics a new opportunity would have to have in order to lure her away from the San Antonio Food Bank, where she has worked for the past 18 years.
She found that opportunity at Corazón San Antonio, a nonprofit focused on serving people experiencing homelessness.
“I love the Food Bank, I love the people there and the work that we do, and I was comfortable … it was home for a long time,” Borrego, the Food Bank’s now-former chief operating officer, told the San Antonio Report.
“But if God puts these three things in front of me, then that tells me it’s time for me to make room for something different. Corazón checked those heart boxes for me without me even trying to find it.”
Borrego, 48, will start a new chapter in her career on May 1 as the first chief operating officer of Corazón.
Through its various operations at Travis Park Church and day center at Grace Lutheran Church, Corazón provides hot meals, clothing, warm showers, hygiene items, medical clinics, harm reduction programs such as needle exchanges, street outreach and access to case management and recovery services. The program also includes migrant resources when needed.
What really called to Borrego was the Corazón team, the Brownsville native said. “The people that work there, and their passion inspired me. … It is contagious.”
‘A person that makes it happen’
Corazón is currently run by executive director Gavin Rogers, who is also an associate pastor at Travis Park Church.
Rogers took over the organization in 2019, when it had a budget of under $200,000, having dwindled since it was founded in 1999.
Corazón now has more than two dozen employees and a $2.7 million budget, and its mission has expanded far beyond the historic church’s walls, Rogers said.
Each day, Corazón and its partners serve more than 200 people at its day center, he said. Since the center opened in 2021, it has helped more than 700 clients get into shelters, treatment facilities, reconnect with family or find other forms of housing.
Rogers said Borrego’s skill set is perfectly matched to expand Corazón’s reach even further.
“The mission of Corazón is to serve those in need with unconditional love and justice in action,” Rogers said. “Working with Erika in the past, I know she will bring all of this mission to Corazón.”
Rogers first worked closely with Borrego in 2019, during the sudden influx of asylum seekers who were traveling through San Antonio to their host cities.
“In an instant, she was able to help us find food for those in the migrant shelter at Travis Park Church,” Rogers said.
They fed more than 53,000 people in just seven months. “I could always call her, anytime during the day or night, if we needed [something]. … She’s a person that makes it happen.”
No stranger to starting small
When Borrego started at the Food Bank 18 years ago, it was a much smaller, localized operation. Today, it distributes food in 29 counties in South Texas, has about 285 employees, hundreds more volunteers and a nearly $200 million annual budget.
In 2010 Borrego was promoted to director of partner services, overseeing programs and agency relationships for the Food Bank. She was again promoted in 2012 to COO.
Moving to the much smaller Corazón is something of a homecoming, she said.
“I can look at it from the small nonprofit perspective that’s growing and I can look at it from the large nonprofit perspective of where the destination could be,” she said. “And pairing those two visions, I think, is pretty powerful.”
Borrego has weathered many storms in San Antonio — sometimes literally, as the Food Bank responds to natural disasters, including the winter storm of 2021 and the coronavirus pandemic.
“Erika was a part of the team that ran towards the crisis rather than away,” said President and CEO Eric Cooper, who has served as head of the Food Bank since 2001. “She worked on those front lines, having to be very nimble and creative.”
Her courage and ability to listen will be “ingredients that will go into [Corazón’s] recipe and make them even more successful in the future,” Cooper said.
“We take people’s investments incredibly seriously,” he continued. “We want to make sure we’re delivering the biggest impact for their dollar and I know that that’s the philosophy that that Erika will take to Corazón.”
Borrego is deeply grateful for Cooper’s mentorship and friendship as well as the support from the Food Bank’s team, which includes her youngest sister and husband, who also have had long careers with the nonprofit.
“I wanted to take the opportunity to try to do something a little more on my own,” Borrego said. “And I think Corazón Ministries will offer me the ability to affect the community in a little bit of a different way … [and bring] all the great things I’ve learned … to a different, slightly more focused social justice issue.”
