Maria Elena Rodriguez
Food Systems Associate
Maria Elena Rodriguez is a Food Systems Associate with DAISA Enterprises, LLC. She brings to this role extensive hands-on experience with community-based food work including increasing access to healthy food, advocating for food justice, supporting small-scale food producers and artisans, and promoting local food culture. Maria Elena has over fifteen years of experience spanning across nonprofit, business, and academic sectors - specializing in project management, research, operations, administration, and events management.
Maria Elena is committed to working from a social justice lens to affect change. As Co-Coordinator of the Food Justice Project with the Community Alliance for Global Justice in Seattle, Washington, she worked in solidarity with diverse Seattle communities to transform the local food system through community education and anti-oppressive organizing. While in this role, she co-directed the publication of the first edition of Our Food, Our Right: Recipes for Food Justice – a grassroots guide to local food systems change. She has since worked to expand the reach of anti-hunger programs in low-income communities in both San Francisco and Washington state, and has managed multiple community farmers’ markets with a particular focus on providing guidance to new food entrepreneurs.
Maria Elena holds a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Washington in Seattle. She also completed a Master’s degree in Community Development from the University of California, Davis, where she created original research on the complex cultural and political dynamics of the Puerto Rican food system. She is currently based in Puerto Rico where she is Founder and Owner of Cosecha Caribe - Caribbean-inspired, hand-crafted artisanal food products that support agroecology and the local food system.
Food Systems Associate
Maria Elena Rodriguez is a Food Systems Associate with DAISA Enterprises, LLC. She brings to this role extensive hands-on experience with community-based food work including increasing access to healthy food, advocating for food justice, supporting small-scale food producers and artisans, and promoting local food culture. Maria Elena has over fifteen years of experience spanning across nonprofit, business, and academic sectors - specializing in project management, research, operations, administration, and events management.
Maria Elena is committed to working from a social justice lens to affect change. As Co-Coordinator of the Food Justice Project with the Community Alliance for Global Justice in Seattle, Washington, she worked in solidarity with diverse Seattle communities to transform the local food system through community education and anti-oppressive organizing. While in this role, she co-directed the publication of the first edition of Our Food, Our Right: Recipes for Food Justice – a grassroots guide to local food systems change. She has since worked to expand the reach of anti-hunger programs in low-income communities in both San Francisco and Washington state, and has managed multiple community farmers’ markets with a particular focus on providing guidance to new food entrepreneurs.
Maria Elena holds a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Washington in Seattle. She also completed a Master’s degree in Community Development from the University of California, Davis, where she created original research on the complex cultural and political dynamics of the Puerto Rican food system. She is currently based in Puerto Rico where she is Founder and Owner of Cosecha Caribe - Caribbean-inspired, hand-crafted artisanal food products that support agroecology and the local food system.