Like so much else in the world these days, Dale Peterson’s journey began with a couple cups of coffee. But those caffeine shots were not meant to get Peterson through his day. They were meant to get a few strangers through their own. “I had struggled most of my life,” said Peterson, who has lived in Nevada County since 1971. “I was in a convenience store and saw these guys who had to go out to work in the middle of wintertime in the sludge and the snow. “They were scrounging for pennies to get their coffee, and I just …