Who We Are

HUNGER is a 501 (c)(3) non profit organization founded in Puerto Rico in 2012. After five years of international projects in The Amazon (Colombia), Dominican Republic and Honduras we decided to invest 100% of our resources in Puerto Rico after Hurricane María.

In 2018 the organization moved its operations to Dorado, a city located in the northern part of Puerto Rico and well known for its rapid growth compared to other areas of the island. Real estate, tourism, small local businesses, construction and health care facilities are just a few areas where this city stands out.

What started as a grassroots movement of service and volunteer engagement has grown into a trusted presence in Puerto Rico—walking alongside communities, rebuilding homes, strengthening communities, and helping hope take root where it is needed most.

“Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” Psalm 127:1

Our Mission

We walk alongside our neighbors in Puerto Rico to build flourishing communities where local voices lead and hope grows.

Our Vision

We envision neighborhoods across Puerto Rico where faith is lived out, dignity is honored, opportunity is shared, and every person has a future filled with hope.

Our Values

Five longings that shape how we serve.

  1. We HUNGER for Faith: Trusting God, praying with conviction, and putting faith into action.

  2. We HUNGER for Dignity: Honoring every neighbor as someone created with value, voice, and a future worth investing in.

  3. We HUNGER for Hope: Believing Christ is at work restoring what is broken and making new life possible.

  4. We HUNGER for Change: showing up, listening first, building trust, and working alongside neighbors toward lasting transformation.

  5. We HUNGER for Community: Believing flourishing happens when local voices lead and neighbors build together.

We remain committed to loving our neighbor and working alongside them toward lasting transformation.


Week after week, our staff bridges the gap between our communities and passionate volunteers from different parts of the world to improve the infrastructure of neighborhoods, provide legal advocacy, rehabilitate public schools, kick start small businesses and equip small local businesses. We do this by partnering with government agencies, the private sector, peer organizations, churches and businesses to envision change, make plans, and mobilize volunteers and financial resources to create flourishing opportunities.

While we contextualize our work to local needs and build on the innate assets of specific communities, our model and methods are replicable across Puerto Rico.

PROOF OF CONCEPT

In 2017, La Hormiga’s story changed forever. A 31-family community devastated by Hurricane Maria. Together we envisioned a community that was stronger, more resilient and sustainable than the day before the storm. We dreamed it and we did it.

After years of hard work we increased property title holding from 3% to 58%. More than half of the families transitioned from being informal settlers into home owners, and are creating wealth and breaking generational poverty cycles. 81% of these families formalized their utility services with the government and are now paying water and electricity. Alongside volunteers we turned 9 unsafe structures into code compliant concrete houses and installed our first solar system for an elderly couple. We employed directly 7 residents and sub-contracted a cook from the community.

Community development is tangible, measurable, and replicable.

120,000
VOLUNTEER
HOURS

During the past five years we have invested more than 125,000 hours of volunteer labor hours in Dorado, PR. This represents a financial contribution of $3,975,000 USD, according to The University of Maryland’s Do Good Institute (2022).

9 HOMES
BUILT FROM
THE GROUND UP

We build houses that will endure the next hurricane. Our code compliant designs are built by volunteers guided by our Field Leaders, supervised by certified engineers and funded by volunteer contributions, private donors and partners. Depending on the evaluation of our staff and the agreement with the recipients we either rehabilitate the home or demolish and build from scratch.

+4,000
USA BASED
VOLUNTEERS

We take pride on having hosted volunteers from nearly all 50 states (US). Teams range from 15 up to 50 people with no age, sex or religion restriction. Their lodging, transportation and meals are on us, this allows us to create indirect jobs (cook, transportation and lodging places) and support the local economy (local restaurants, hardware and lumber stores, super markets, salsa instructors and more).

Our volunteers contribute an average of 28 work hours per week in service projects such as house construction, public school rehabilitation projects, communal gardens, natural disaster response projects, support to local farmers and small business owners.

Groups we have hosted: Westminster Christian Private School (Atlanta, GA), Comité Noviembre (Acacia Network NY), Life at Money (San Juan, PR), Crossroads Church (Cincinnati, OH), RUF (Alabama & Georgia), Sonlight Power (Cincinnati, OH), Globe Aware, One America Movement, Biola University (La Mirada, CA), Grace Church (Greenville, SC), and more.