Leticia Landa

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT LETICIA LANDA

Over the past seventeen years the work I\'ve done has established La Cocina as an incubator of equity in the food industry. Business ownership is an driver of economic mobility that is frustratingly out of reach for many of our most talented cooks and entrepreneurs. Race and gender should never be a barrier to opportunity and La Cocina has worked for the past almost 20 years to ensure that resources and business-building skills are available to talented immigrant, BIPOC, and women chefs who are creating the inclusive and vibrant Bay Area that we all want to live (and eat) in. La Cocina\'s program is currently working with 88 food businesses that have built more than 40 beloved brick and mortar food establishments, including Reem\'s, El Huarache Loco, Besharam, Minnie Bells, Damansara, Onigilly, El Buen Comer, Lunette, and the list goes on and on business owners who have gone through our 6 year incubator program create jobs for themselves and others, their kids to go to college, 12 are are now co-running businesses with the next generation, five of them have purchased Bay Area homes. La Cocina has proven that building food businesses in a supportive and patient environment creates real economic opportunities for the people who own and work at them. These businesses also create much needed spaces where people can meet to share a meal, express their culture, and build community.Since I became ED, La Cocina has expanded our operations to running two shared use kitchens in San Francisco (one in the Mission and one in the Tenderloin) and expanded our impact by launching La Cocina Consulting, so that we can provide our best practices to other organizations looking to support the food businesses in their areas. I love this work because I love learning about people and where they come from through the food they cook, I believe in this work because I know a different kind of economy, one that serves all of us, is possible.