When a young Alan Graham chided a homeless man panhandling next to a taco stand in Austin, he could not have imagined that 36 years later he’d be living in a vibrant neighborhood of formerly homeless people, a neighborhood that he built.

In 1998, real estate developer Alan Graham launched Mobile Loaves and Fishes to help communities offer food, housing, and employment for neighbors coming up off the streets. What started out as one food truck and a mission to meet people where they are turned into a multi-million dollar operation with tens of thousands of volunteers who have never missed a night, delivering more than 6 million meals from their food trucks and lifting folks into permanent housing, jobs, and most importantly, community. Today, Community First! Village is a thriving neighborhood still growing to span 178 acres and eventually provide 1,900 permanent homes for people coming out of chronic homelessness, alongside those who support and care for them.

As you'll hear, Alan didn't plan on dedicating his life to serving the homeless, but a twist of fate and a leap of faith changed everything for him and for so many others.

For more on Alan Graham and Mobile Loaves and Fishes, visit mlf.org

Read Alan Graham’s book, Welcome Homeless

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If you liked this episode, listen next to Ron Pringle: An American Dream to End Hunger, from season 2, episode 2.

Hosted and executive produced by Kate Tucker, Hope Is My Middle Name is a podcast by Consensus Digital Media in collaboration with Reasonable Volume.