Students and teachers at Forest Trail Elementary School have partnered with local nonprofit Mobile Loaves & Fishes on Community First Village, a 27-acre community at 9301 Hog Eye Road in Austin that provides affordable, permanent housing and support for the disabled and chronically homeless in Central Texas.

MLF Director of Development Donna Emery said FTE’s faculty first organized a garage sale in February to raise money for one house at CFV. Emery said FTE’s physical education teacher Jane Lewis met a CFV resident who was panhandling at the corner of Bee Caves Road and MoPac, which led her to take an interest in the program.

Emery said students became more active in trying to raise funds, trading in gift cards to buy patio furniture for the new house, throwing birthday parties and asking for donations to CFV instead of presents, and holding a pizza night with Austin Pizza to raise money for CFV.

The school also received $10,000 from the Mitte Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to support educational and community organizations.

Kindergarteners helped raise chickens that will be used to provide eggs for CFV residents; first-graders counted and distributed household supplies; second- and third-graders wrote welcome notes for the new homeowners; and fourth- and fifth-graders created grapevine wreaths to hang on residents’ doors, said Claudia McWhorter, Eanes ISD executive director of communication and community engagement.

Emery said new residents will soon move into the new home. In the meantime, she said students are continuing to raise chicks for the coop, and discussions are forming around having students do reading circles with the CFV residents.