La Princesita works hard to take care of their business, employees, and community
In Los Angeles, tortillas form communities, but on the corner of Cesar Chavez Street and Alma Avenue, tortillas also create avenues for higher education.
The little princess Tortillería is a household name in Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles for their fresh corn tortillas, which the surrounding communities have been serving since 1972. But since August they have been pursuing their own approach to help their community differently: They award micro-scholarships and scholarships to their employees and their families.
“Looking back at the sacrifices our workers made throughout the pandemic to continue to appear every day for the essential workers they are,” La Princesita CEO Rick Rodriguez told LA TACO. “We wanted to look for ways to show that we also value and support their families.
For its founding year, La Princesita awarded nine scholarships – a total of approximately $ 8,000. The funds for these scholarships were raised in-house. Rodriguez tells LA TACO that the original project idea was to only give out a grant, but they couldn’t help but add more awards when they saw the overwhelming amount of letters and submissions they received. They added minor scholarships for their workers’ children who are in high school
A special award, “The Pancho Scholar”, honors the founder of La Princesita, Francisco Ramirez, who died in 2019. His daughter, Monica Ramirez, is now president of the company and continues his tortilla legacy.
“There’s a lot of scholarships out there but our people just don’t know about them, and we know any little thing helps, “Ramirez tells L.A. TACO. “Kids from immigrant families automatically think they’re not going to get it, so they don’t even try. Other employees just don’t have time because they work so much or don’t even speak English. We are trying to do something about this.”
Next year, La Princesita is planning on offering the scholarships again.
- https://youtu.be/PJePPLPYBPI
- https://www.lataco.com/la-princesita-tortilleria-scholarships-workers/
- https://thedailyfinancialgaz.com/a-tortilleria-in-east-la-gives-scholarships-to-its-workers-and-their-children-who-want-to-go-to-college/
- https://us-east-2.console.aws.amazon.com/polly/home/SynthesizeSpeech
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