Mobile Loaves & Fishes

Mobile Loaves & Fishes (MLFY) is a social service organization that has been changing communities into a lifestyle of service with the homeless. Founded in 1998 in Austin, Texas, the organization provides services through three main programs.

Truck Ministry

Mobile Loaves & Fishes' food truck volunteers hit the streets 7 nights a week, 365 days a year to serve the homeless, delivering food, clothing, hygiene products and other life items. With the support of more than 19, 000 volunteers and over 5 million meals served, Mobile Loaves & Fishes is the largest prepared feeding program to the homeless and working poor in Austin, Texas.

Community First Village

Community First Village is a 51-acre master planned community that provides affordable, permanent housing and a supportive community for the disabled and homeless in Central Texas. Since 2005, this transformative residential program has been a part of Mobile Loaves & Fishes and has become the largest community-based model in the country lifting homeless men and women up off the streets into community and home.

Community Works

Mobile Loaves & Fishes developed the Community Works program at Community First Village. It provides job opportunities for the residents who are coming out of homelessness to earn an income. In addition, the program requests Mobile Loaves & Fishes volunteers to serve alongside and build enduring relationships with our friends as they develop new skills.

Opportunities for more volunteers

Thank you for your interest in Mobile Loaves & Fishes! We have a variety of volunteer opportunities. Please read the service requirements carefully before your application to fulfill service hours with MLF.

The 36th Annual Pelham Art Festival

About the Event

Join us at the Meridian Community Centre in Fonthill, Ontario, for the 36th annual Pelham Art Festival! The in-person festival runs from May 12 — 14, 2023, and artwork can also be looked through and bought through the Internet both before and after the festival from May 8 — 18, 2023.

The Pelham Art Festival, now in its 36th year, is a not-for-profit activity and is recognized as one of the original spring art festivals in Ontario. We host nationally and internationally popular Canadian artists and welcome thousands of visitors, art lovers and collectors to the festival every year. Collectively, our visitors spend over $50,000 annually in buying art, contributing to the economic success of the participating artists and the cultural development of Pelham.

The Online Festival offers fine collections of artists’ and artisans’ artwork selected by art professionals. Between festivals, online art galleries at pelhamartfestival.com show current works that can be bought directly from artists. The festival is a fundraising event and artists/artisans donate back 15% of their sales.

We are a proud community sponsor (资助者) of Lincoln Pelham Public Libraries and the arts. Festival earnings benefit the Lincoln Pelham Public Libraries and provide annual scholarships to graduating Pelham students from E. L. Crossley Secondary School and Notre Dame College School, who will pursue post-secondary studies in fine arts. The festival also supports various community art projects.

Event Location

The Meridian Community Centre is a place for residents of all ages to gather and enjoy a wide variety of sportful, social, health, and community activities for generations to come. The amazing 143,000-square-foot facility includes adaptable and multi-purpose community rooms, a large activity centre with two full courts, two NHL-sized arenas, an indoor walking/running track, shop areas, change rooms & washrooms, and an atrium/lobby area.

This year a group called Teach For America (TFA) saw an increase in applications by 36 percent. The organization recruits (招聘) college graduates to help fill a teacher shortage in less developed areas of America. The organization’s leaders say some college graduates prefer to take the positions in public service during the economic (经济的) downturn but many feel a renewed spirit of public service.

“Teaching is much harder than I expected. Changing the world is never easy,” says Loren Heinbach. She has made up her mind to become a teacher to address the imbalance in education that exists between rich and poor communities.

Heinbach is one of over 6,000 TFA members, recent college graduates who volunteer to teach children in poor inner cities and rural public schools. She gives up possible work in medicine or law which will pay much more later on. Instead, she takes a teaching job at the KIPP Academy.

The school is in a neighborhood of Washington, DC. The students there traditionally perform (表现) in the lowest 25% of national standards. Vice Principal Kristy Ochs says the school is working hard to improve the quality of education, but it is difficult to find teachers willing to do the hard work.

Ochs also gets her start in TFA. Two-thirds of members stay in education after their two-year service ends. She says these new teachers make every effort to teach school.

Heinbach’s students say she has high standards and expectations. One student says, “You have to really pay attention. The questions may seem easy, but if you make the wrong decision on a question, it’s like you really messed up.” “She also likes us to take notes. And I do thank her because she is getting us ready for college,” another student adds.