About Us
Dare to Strive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to promoting food justice, food sovereignty, and community self-sufficiency. We achieve this by providing charitable donations of free meals and offering educational programs to communities affected by limited access to healthy foods due to geographic location, financial barriers, and a generational gap in food self-sufficiency skills. Our primary demographic focus is at-risk youth, who often encounter greater challenges in accessing healthy food. Currently, our organization operates in two main locations: the Bay Area, California, and Puerto Rico, where we function as Cocina Las Ancestras.
Place Matters!
Why the Bay Area and Puerto Rico?
BAY AREA, CALIFORNIA
In the Bay Area, food inequality is rampant, with financial barriers across various geographic areas, socioeconomic classes, and racial lines limiting access to healthy foods, creating food deserts. Our mission is to promote food justice and community empowerment by implementing programs that directly offer free food to communities in need, as well as providing resources to foster community self-sufficiency and self-reliance.
PUERTO RICO
While Puerto Rico was once an agricultural archipelago, political and economic decision-making has led it to import 85% of the food it consumes, with only 22% of its total land area dedicated to agriculture. This reliance makes the island extremely vulnerable to natural disasters, as demonstrated by Hurricane Maria in 2017. Our mission is to promote food sovereignty and community resilience by directly supporting small-scale agroecology farmers in Puerto Rico, providing free meals to communities in need—especially during natural disasters—and offering tools to foster community self-sufficiency and self-reliance.