![]() ![]() In 2009, Rick Stern, the then-CEO of World Vision International, an evangelical Christian humanitarian organization, spoke at their church, introducing two facts that alarmed the Samuelsons: at that time, more than 18,000 children under the age of five died from hunger or hunger related causes per day, yet hunger was the single most solvable problem facing the world. Here, they started learning how they might help with hunger. That started something inside of us that we couldn’t really stop.”įrom there, Ashton and Austin began working with a homeless shelter called Union Rescue Mission in downtown Los Angeles. “It helped us realize that every person has a story, and that hunger and homelessness has a name. “That relationship is what ignited the passion for me and Austin,” she said. One day, Samuelson decided it was time to roll the window down and get to know her. On Samuelson’s commute to work while in California, she encountered a homeless woman at a six-minute red light, every day, twice a day. This pull was the start of a mission that would ultimately drive the creation of Tacos 4 Life, a taco restaurant that now has more than 15 locations and has donated more than 13.8 million meals to kids in need. Samuelson described how her day-to-day life of teaching and driving home every day, noticing the need of the homeless people right outside her home, was the beginning of a pull for both her and her husband. It was overwhelming, coming from such a small town.” “When we lived in California, God gripped our hearts in a really unique way,” Samuelson told Arkansas Money & Politics.“There was a really high concentration of homeless people that lived right next to our apartment. Everything seemed to be on the track Samuelson had always envisioned. ![]() The Arkadelphia native met her husband Austin at summer camp during high school, attended Ouachita Baptist University alongside him and moved to California immediately after graduation, where he worked in commercial real estate and she taught at a private Christian school. When Ashton Samuelson graduated from college in 2008, she immediately found a job teaching elementary education – the job she had dreamed of growing up. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |