Strive is an academy-par After-School Academics & Arts program operating in the Watts community of South Los Angeles, serving 150 students daily. Strive's mission is to educate well mannered, academically prepared, individually responsible children who do not allow their lives to be defined by personal circumstances.

One of the most important parts of this project over the last decade has been educating our students about nutrition and health. Unfortunately we find ourselves in an uphill battle against fast food, processed snacks, and sugary drinks.

Don Anderson, our Program Director, has responded to our student’s eating choices by introducing a Strive kitchen and cafe, where students can have a nutritious meal and buy daily homemade treats. The success of this café has really been greater than we expected. As the kitchen has grown, we have been able to use it as a classroom, and open up a conversation with our students about nutrition and self-sufficiency in the kitchen.

We are reaching out to you, to ask for your support in expanding and improving our kitchen - that's our awesome project. We have started a Fundly campaign toward this end, with a video I hope you will watch:

https://fundly.com/strive-kitchen-fundraiser#

Our goal is to purchase a commercial stove so that we can take the Strive Café to the next stage and have trained students working in our kitchen. Looking toward the future, we want to offer a program in which Strive operates as a restaurant, and students can learn skills as cooks, servers, and managers. The food landscape in our part of Watts provides limited choices for the hundreds of teachers and police officers that commute here daily. With your support, we can have students learning to cook and eat nutritiously, providing healthy food to the community, all while contributing to the ongoing financial viability of our after-school academics and arts program. I think that's pretty awesome, and hope you will too.