“It was like three blessings all in one,” Laura Miller shared. “It helped a population that is more vulnerable, it helped somebody with a restaurant who is probably struggling at this time, and it really brought a bunch of my friends together.”
When we shared last week Austin Street Center was in need of meals to help our homeless friends through this COVID-19 crisis, Laura Miller immediately reached out. Her and her husband Blake wanted to help.
“I wanted to take care of my family, but it was very much on my heart that there were people in a more vulnerable space than us,” Laura said. “So, when The Human Impact posted a tangible, like something that I could do, it just seemed like an easy thing to do.”
God Made a Way
With stores being out of food and having limits on how much you can buy, and realizing that her and her husband needed more oven space if they were going to cook a meal for hundreds of people in just a few days, she prayed.
“God, I have no idea how I’m going to do this. You’re going to have to make a way for this to happen.”
Then she called her friend Jayna DuBose. Then Jayna called her husband Chad, who happened to be at lunch with Robert Sunleaf, the Owner of Tri Tip Grill in Frisco, who just so happened to be looking for ways to help his Dallas community during this COVID-19 crisis. Thanks God!
And at a very discounted cost, Frisco’s Tri Tip Grill provided a ton of food for hundreds of our homeless friends at Austin Street Center today. But it was the Millers, the DuBoses, Robert Sunleaf, and over 20 of their friends who gathered their resources together to help fund this meal in such a short amount of time. Through all of these wonderful people, God made a way!
“In the beginning, I thought just my husband and I were going to do this together, and I was kind of making myself crazy with the cost and the logistics. Then as soon as I realized, ‘No this is a group idea, this needs to be a group project,’ it just started to blossom,” Laura said.
“It was a good excuse to reach out and check in with each other, and it gave us something to do together. And I love that it’s helping this restaurant industry that is really hurting right now. It was such a win-win for everybody. It was really cool the way it worked out.”
Home is more than four walls
At the State of Homelessness address last week, Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance CEO Carl Falconer shared this about the Coronavirus Pandemic:
“It is teaching us to look out for everyone in our community. It is teaching us that as a community we can and will go to great lengths to keep each other safe. It is teaching us that our community is only as strong as the weakest in our community. It is teaching us that we are all connected. It is teaching us that a home is more than four walls and a roof; a home is healthcare, public safety, family, community.”
The Miller and DuBose families, Robert Sunleaf and Tri Tip Grill, and the 20 plus others that helped make this happen for our homeless friends at Austin Street Center, thank you! Thank you for looking out for your Dallas community and going to great lengths to protect those most vulnerable.
You are the perfect example of community, of home.