On a mission trip to Mexico to build a church, our founder, Jason Stanford, encountered hunger in the children of the village. His team fed the children daily and saw how appreciative they were for a daily meal. Upon returning to Austin, Jason and his wife, Celeste, began to research hunger in the Austin area and soon discovered that there was an issue in our community. So, they decided to fight hunger and started Hungry Souls in June of 2011.
Originally, Hungry Souls operated out of Jason's office with one shelf for food, one refrigerator/freezer unit, and one school partner where three families were served. As the program began to flourish, we moved to a storage unit, then two units, and eventually our own space at Fairview Baptist Church. In December of 2020, we moved to our current location at Bannockburn Church.
The Meaning Behind Our Name
Being hungry takes on many forms besides physical hunger. We see this in our kids and their families every day. Some are hungry for food, some for material needs, some for health, and some for friendship and community. Their soul is troubled and we have been called to help.
The greatest hunger we all experience is the need for relationships. And the greatest relationship we are designed to have is one with our creator. Therefore, our end goal at Hungry Souls is to demonstrate the love of Jesus in tangible ways to produce an opportunity to introduce families to Jesus.