In Central Texas, the Refugee Collective is working to demonstrate that farming can serve as both a livelihood and a lifeline. By supporting refugees through farming initiatives, the nonprofit creates pathways to earn fair wages, grow culturally meaningful food, and implement regenerative agriculture practices.
On the Collective’s 20-acre farm in Elgin, Texas, refugees have the chance to bring traditional farming techniques from their cultures as they learn new regenerative practices. The produce harvested at this year-round, Certified Organic farm goes to local restaurants, wholesale buyers, and a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.
The program has “enabled newly arrived refugees to gain access to commercial plots at our farm to grow more traditionally desired produce, along with training and the ability to sell the organic produce,” Christina Jones, Community Engagement Manager at the Refugee Collective, tells Food Tank.
The Collective also offers smaller plots of land and seeds to newly arrived refugees. Refugee farmers can then sell their produce back to the Collective at market prices and distribute it among their local communities. This program has yielded culturally significant crops, including regional seasoning blends, that are not commonly available in grocery stores in the area.
The Collective’s farms aim to serve as a model for climate-resilient agriculture. In partnership with conservation groups, the Refugee Collective developed Texas’s first Resilient Farm Plan, which will help the Collective sequester 345 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year once fully implemented. The plan integrates no-till practices, cover cropping, crop rotation, windbreaks, and rotational grazing with laying hens.
But the Trump-Vance Administration’s attacks on refugee and immigrant communities and food security programs are creating new challenges for the organization.
“I think that you cannot avoid the sense of danger with the current administration’s assault on basic human rights,” Jones tells Food Tank. “Even though the refugees that we employ are here legally, we cannot ignore the hostility toward their communities. Our feeling is that we want to help refugees through more food access since federal funding like SNAP benefits are being withheld.”
Recent cuts to SNAP benefits and grant funding also leave the Collective worried that it will become more difficult to fund the growing and sale of their harvests.
But Jones and the Collective are trying to focus on maintaining and scaling their efforts. “I look forward to making a greater impact on even more refugees in our community through more food access, pathways for more women to earn supplemental income and for more people in Austin to become connected to our mission through donations and subscribing to our CSA,” says Jones.
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Photo courtesy of the Refugee Collective
