Occire Santos Garcia and his wife Martha dreamed of opening a Honduran restaurant. Martha is a great cook and with nine years of experience in the business, they thought theirs would be the best Honduran restaurant in San Francisco. With their own business they could secure a future for themselves and their three children and employ some of Occire and Martha’s siblings.
Occire secured the perfect spot with lots of foot traffic and close to public transportation. They invested their savings in beginning to refurbish the space. Despite their clear experience and commitment, they were denied financing from banks and non-profit organizations because they lacked an operating history. Not to be deterred, they turned to friends and family for help. Their community came through and helped the family out with zero interest loans and no time limit on repayment. After many months spent trying to get start up funding the Garcia’s will open their restaurant at the end of October 2010.