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Texas community tackles homelessness in unique faith-based way, and it seems to be working

Proselytizing is banned, "preaching the gospel" is done through deeds, not words, and a caring community is continually being built.

homeless community

Mobile Loaves & Fishes/YouTube

Community First! Village

"Housing alone will never solve homelessness, but community will."

That's the philosophy of Mobile Loaves & Fishes, a faith-based organization in Travis County, Texas, that provides not only housing, but a caring, supportive community for people who have experienced chronic homelessness.

Homelessness is a challenging issue that affects communities across the United States, from small rural towns to large urban centers. It looks different in different places and for different people, but according to the 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report, more than 580,000 people experienced homelessness in the United States on any given day in 2022.

Figuring out how to solve the multi-faceted problem is an ongoing struggle. Some advocate for simply providing housing, but that doesn't address the issues that might cause someone to be unable to maintain a home. Some suggest tackling the addiction and mental health disorders at the root of many homeless experiences, but that alone won't solve the problem, either.

Mobile Loaves & Fishes doesn't claim to have solved the homeless crisis, but the Community First! Village they've built sure looks like a solid step toward addressing it effectively.

Sitting at the outskirts of northeast Austin, Community First! Village is a 51-acre master-planned housing development that "provides affordable, permanent housing and a supportive community for men and women coming out of chronic homelessness." The village, which has been built up slowly and is slated to have 500 homes by the end of this year, has an outdoor movie theater and indoor spaces where residents can gather, an art house where they can create and express themselves, gardens where they can cultivate their own food and more.

Mobile Loves & Fishes founder Alan Graham taps into the heart of homelessness and explains why the community approach works with just a handful of words: "It's about being lonely, man."

The idea that community is the key to ending homelessness has been gleaned from the 35 years Mobile Loaves & Fishes has been serving meals and building relationships with their neighbors experiencing homelessness, learning about what they truly want and need. Their model is both simple and not—it's simple in its premise of focusing on personal connections, but multi-pronged in its approach to creating community. It truly takes a village to build this kind of community, but they're doing it.

As is clear in the name Mobile Loaves & Fishes, the organization doesn't hide its Christian foundation, but you'll rarely hear anyone involved talking about it overtly. Proselytizing in the community is not allowed—anyone who wants to share their faith shares it through deeds.

"What we want people to do is preach the gospel often, and only when necessary, use words," Graham told the Today show. They are all about showing love and faith through service rather than preaching to people about Christianity. "It's why most of our neighbors love Christ, but can't stand Christians," he added. There are no religious requirements in the community or for volunteers.

The community is not a utopia, of course. Residents bring struggles with them, but here they have a community to support them through those struggles.

"It's life. It's real life, with all the beauty in the marinade of dysfunction, all put into that one little tasty gumbo," said Graham. Residents aren't even required to be free from alcohol or drug use to find a home there.

"The two essential human needs are to be fully and wholly loved and fully and wholly known," said Graham. "And when you bring all that to the table, it creates an environment of welcoming."

Watch the Today show's segment on Community First! Village:

You can learn more about Mobile Loaves & Fishes and the other work they do in the Austin area to assist people experiencing homelessness at mlf.org.

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How a warm bowl of Korean curry came to represent love and sacrifice

Food can mean so many things.

All images provided by Kat Chao

A photo of Kat and her mom, and a bowl of her mom's famous curry

True

Whether it’s the mac n’ cheese that reminds you of simpler times, or the exotic spiced chicken recipe you acquired from your travels, every meal tells a story.

This rings especially true for people whose families immigrate to different countries to start a new life. Immigrant parents often not only save every penny, but spend most of their time away working in order to build a future for their children. Each comfort meal they manage to provide their kids in the very few spare hours they have tells the story of love and sacrifice.

For Kat Chao, that meal was her mother’s Korean curry.

korean food A photo of baby Kat and her mom and dad

Growing up, Kat’s mom worked weekends to support her family. But that didn’t stop her from waking up Saturday morning to dice up some beef and fresh veggies and throw them into a large pot so that Kat’s dad could heat it up and serve it with some rice to her and her brothers later.

Curry was a quick, easy and inexpensive way to feed a full house, but it served more than just practical purposes. As Kat would wake up to the enticing aroma, she was reminded that her mom was always taking care of her, even if she couldn’t physically be there.

koran curry YUM

As Kat grew a little older, her attitude towards her mother’s curry shifted. Instead of looking forward to it, she would “roll her eyes at it,” as is customary of the rebellious teen. Those less-than-positive feelings were only exacerbated by the media constantly labeling carbs, therefore rice, as “bad.” As a kid who struggled with weight, her comfort food became a source of discomfort.

But as an adult, and now a mom herself, Kat has reached a full circle moment.

korean recipes, albertsons Kat, all grown up with her own familiy

As she makes her own kids the exact same curry dish (okay, maybe a leaner cut of beef, and organic veggies…but otherwise exactly the same!) Kat finds a whole new appreciation for the recipe, knowing how hard her mom worked to even make it happen.

Kat was lucky to have grown up with a meal to look forward to each night. Other kids aren’t so lucky. 1 in 8 kids currently experience food insecurity in the United States. But there’s an opportunity to decrease those numbers.

For every O Organics product you purchase, the company will donate a meal to someone in need through the Albertsons Companies Foundation—for up to a total of 28 million meals.

Is there a dish from your childhood that you’ve longed to rekindle with? You could do like Kat does and give it an O Organic twist. Luckily, the O Organics brand has a wide array of affordable ingredients, so creating healthy swaps is easier than ever. Plus, you can provide nourishment to another family at the same time.

Just think—the next meal you prepare could make all the difference to someone else. If every meal tells a story, that’s certainly a story worth telling.

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It's truly a win-win.

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No child should have to worry about getting enough food to thrive.

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When you’re a kid, summer means enjoying the fun of the season—plentiful sunshine, free time with friends, splashing in pools and sprinklers. But not every child’s summer is as carefree as it should be.

For some, summer means going hungry. According to Feeding America, food insecurity affects 1 in 8 children in the U.S., largely because families lose the free or reduced-price meals at school that help keep them fed during the school year.

But back-to-school time doesn’t make food insecurity disappear, either. Hunger is a year-round issue, and with the increased cost of groceries, it’s gotten harder for families who were already struggling to put food on the table.

So what can be done—or more specifically, what can the average person do—to help?

The good news is that one simple choice at the grocery store can help ease the burden a bit for those experiencing food insecurity. And the even better news is that it’s also a healthy choice for ourselves, our families and our planet. When we’re out on our regular shopping trips, we can simply look for the O Organics versions of things we would already buy.

But wait—aren’t we all feeling the pinch at the checkout stand? And isn’t organic food expensive? Here’s the thing: Organic food is often much more affordable than you might think. The cost difference between organic and non-organic products keeps narrowing, and many organic and non-organic foods are now almost identical in price. Sometimes you’ll even find that an organic product is actually cheaper than its brand-name non-organic counterpart.

Since 2005, O Organics has helped give health-conscious shoppers more options by making organic food more accessible and affordable. And now, it’s helping those same shoppers take action to fight food insecurity. For every O Organics product you purchase, the company will donate a meal to someone in need through the Albertsons Companies Foundation—for up to a total of 28 million meals.

Look for the O Organics label in every aisle.O Organics

Here’s what that means in real-world terms:

Say you’re throwing an end-of-summer backyard BBQ bash. If you were to buy O Organics ground beef, hamburger buns, ketchup and sea salt potato chips, you’d be donating four meals just by buying those four ingredients. If you added O Organics butter lettuce and O Organics sandwich slice pickles, you’d be donating two more meals, and so on.

And where are those meals going? Albertsons Companies Foundation works with a network of national and local charities fighting hunger, and regional divisions choose organizations to fund locally. So every O Organics product you purchase means a meal on the table for someone in your area who might not otherwise have the nourishment they need.

No kid should have to worry about getting enough food to thrive. We all make conscious choices each time we walk down a grocery store aisle, and by choosing

O Organics, we can make a difference in a child’s life while also making healthy choices for ourselves and our families. It’s truly a win-win.

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