About us

In The Beginning

In November 2010, Michael Johnson started Hunger 2 Help, Inc. dba Burrito Boyz with his 12 year old son Alec and Alec’s best friend Luke. Michael was prompted by Alec’s Christmas “wish” list which was quite extensive, to say the least! Michael wasn’t upset that his son wanted these things, but he was concerned that his son may not have learned to appreciate the things he did have. Michael thought that one way to teach his son and his friend not to take things for granted was to expose them to people who had so much less than they did. Michael gathered the boys in his kitchen early on that first Sunday morning made 54 hot breakfast burritos and took them downtown for the boys to hand out, along with 54 bottles of water, to our homeless friends. After their first Sunday downtown serving others, the boys knew they had started something special. That was over 13 years ago. The Burrito Boyz and a cast of mostly teen volunteers have served over 280,000 breakfast burritos, water, fruit, granola, books, reading glasses, toiletries, feminine hygiene products, clothing, and other comfort items. The mission of Burrito Boyz is to not only feed our hungry friends downtown and to do so with dignity and respect, but also to encourage our young volunteers to make connections with members of the homeless community by engaging with them while handing them burritos, water, etc. By doing so, we believe our young volunteers learn to feel compassion, and empathy and the important lesson of treating ALL people with dignity and respect. Among our most active young volunteers are Teen Volunteers in Action (TVIA), Female Athlete Volunteers (FAV), and MEDLIFE (Medicine, Education, Development for Low-Income Families Everywhere) from SDSU. At Burrito Boyz, we like to think we are “Saving The World One Burrito At A Time.”