06/20/2025
It’s been a couple days since I have posted anything but we’ve been busy and tired!!
On Wednesday morning most of us went to the Refugee Collective farm. This is a gigantic farm that employees refugees who help tend the gardens. They are organic so they source to various restaurants in the Austin area as well as vegetable subscription boxes. They also have a textile branch where people sew and they use dyes which are grown from plants on the farm. This was a very hot day. We dug for potatoes but thank goodness they had a tractor to unearth a lot of them for us. There was no shade where we were working and lots of fire ants.
A few went to Lifeworks which is an advocacy center that caters to kids who are homeless. It’s a one stop shop with available housing units (for those 18-24), mental health resources, “Street Outreach” programs to meet people where they are and they are also a cooling center and place to get some food.
In the afternoon, we all met at Lifeworks for a Juneteenth BBQ celebration. Those who didn’t go to the Refugee Collective farm, went to Lifeworks earlier to set up and cook for the BBQ.
On Thursday, we went to a Juneteenth parade which was so much fun! Everyone enjoyed watching the parade!!
After the parade, we headed to the state Capitol building where we learned just how hard it is to get a bill passed. We did some mock presentations about different ideas that we had to improve food insecurity.
Thursday night we ate at a Tex Mex restaurant then went to the “Bat Bridge” on South Congress Street. This bridge is home to about 1.5 million Mexican Free Tailed bats who all come out to hunt at the same time shortly after sunset. Not all the kids loved this excursion however it was absolutely amazing watching the bats come out.
Today, we finished up with our Be The Neighbor group and are currently headed to Fort Worth to stay at Ridgelea Church again.