Meet Jose Rico | President and Chief Operating Officer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jose Rico and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jose, maybe we can start at the very start – the idea – how did you come up with the idea for your business?
I have always been about looking out for my community and helping the needs of others. It didn’t take long for me to start thinking of forming a non-profit where our aim is to lower and ultimately end the food insecurity and hunger rate in Dallas County, Texas, and the USA. If you look at the statistics around Texas and Dallas County you see that we have one of the highest rates of hunger in the country and that’s a startling fact when we’re supposedly the richest country in the world. I have grew into a position of helping everyone even if I don’t have much to offer but I knew something had to be done, which is why I came up with DFW Housing and Hunger.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
DFW Housing and Hunger is a organization who wants to raise awareness to hunger and food insecurity and we’re doing this on social media, in the streets, and literally everywhere we communicate with people. It has not been an easy journey and still isn’t but knowing that we are helping our community and giving them meals for the day is something we take pride in and worth the long hours of work we put into it. Challenges arise everyday but we’ve successful overcame them with the help of people doing the same work as us, in todays world it’s about communicating with people and hearing what kind of problems they are facing. This is how we create a plan to further aid our community. What I want people to take away from the organization is that we know how hard it is to be hungry and have to maintain a positive attitude because most if not all of our members have suffered from food insecurity at one point of their life and our sole mission is to end hunger around the world.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would first take them to my childhood spots growing up like the little creek on Garland rd and just sit down and watch the water flow through the city. At one point we’re going to get hungry and I am all about quality food especially if it’s Mexican food. The first place I would take them would be Taqueria Tacumbo, this place is a super small restaurant that has one of the best tortas, tacos, and burritos and believe me because thousands of other people say the same thing! After that I always love a good elote or churro so I tend to head to La Super on Walnut Rd across the bazaar on Jupiter rd. I’ve seen the growth of this store and it’s exciting to see what they’ve built. Let’s head out of there and go to a spot for some drinks, my go to spot would literally be anywhere in Downtown Dallas or Downtown Garland. Dallas is always a good place to go to discover new restaurants and that’s coming from someone who has been here for over 22 years!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
It’s been a bumpy road to get to where I am but I also wouldn’t be where I am if it wasn’t for these few individuals and the first person I am going to Mention is Mark Melton, he’s a passionate, compassionate, and reasonable man who is working to bring awareness to the eviction crisis in Dallas County by providing Pro Bono services to tenants. Earlier this year he helped me raise money to buy beds for a family who needed them while my organization provided food for them. He left me an imprint that I will never forget and his work is awe inspiring. Another Individual I have on my list is Atalia Garcia Williams, we met in early November in 2021 and I automatically knew she has a heart for helping others. I reached out to her because DFW Housing and Hunger were doing their first ever Thanksgiving meal giveaway and we needed support to do it. She took it a step further and literally made the event possible and because of it over 200 meals were giving to those who were left out of a Thanksgiving meal for the day. We are still proudly working along side with her ad planning bigger things in the future. I can go on and on for days of people who have inspired me but these two have left an impact on me so strong I cannot thank them enough.

Website: http://www.dfwhousingandhunger.org/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dfw_housing_hunger/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-rico-aa2667188?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/DFW_HH

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DFW.Housing.Hunger/

Image Credits
Mark Melton, Emmanuel Lewis, CitySquare, Heidi and Alex, and Roel Garcia.