Who We Are
Hunger Corp 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. Nevertheless in Dorado there are many communities that have been underserved for the last 80 years lacking property titles, proper education, sound infrastructure, as well as experiencing high levels of unemployment, violence and social isolation. So this became our mission, to help underserved communities in Puerto Rico prosper through social, educational and economic development. One city at a time.
Vision
We envision a world where cities in Puerto Rico flourish as residents of all backgrounds and volunteers from across the island and the US come together to promote social, educational, and economic opportunities for marginalized people. Over time, Hunger Corp is recognized as a trusted catalyst of community development.
Mission
Hunger Corp exists to restore dignity by helping communities in Puerto Rico prosper. We do this by partnering with government agencies, churches, and businesses to envision change, make plans, and mobilize volunteers and financial resources to create opportunities for flourishing. 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.
Values
Hunger Corp’s goals and strategies are guided by 6 key values.
Dignity: We build self-esteem in individuals and communities by treating people with respect.
Community: We work with other people and organizations to build flourishing households and cities.
Service: Our team is committed to providing impactful solutions that address the unique needs of the individuals and communities we serve.
Commitment: We work closely with individual people and communities for as long as it takes to meet our goals.
Replicability: We develop models and systems that can be applied to multiple contexts.
Sustainability: We steward resources carefully to protect our mission.
We commit to the most challenged communities for a minimum of five years, to develop and re-insert them into the growth of their city.
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.