The Greater Fayette Community Foundation is proud to introduce the 2025 grantees of the Rural Community Health Fund. These 20 organizations are advancing health equity across rural South Central Texas by addressing the social drivers of health including housing, food access, transportation, and community connection. Selected through a community-led review process, this year’s grantees represent bold, local leadership and a shared commitment to improving well-being for all who call this region home.
TEAMCTX (Fiscal Sponsor: 212 Catalyst) | Service Area: Hays County
TEAMCTX will serve 50 residents in Hays County by piloting ‘Host-a-Home,’ a grassroots housing initiative that places tiny homes in backyards to provide long-term shelter for single adults experiencing homelessness. This initiative fosters dignity, reducing stigma, and building a replicable community-led model grounded in belonging, neighbor-to-neighbor support, and strategic systems change.
Homeless Outreach Mitigation and Emergency | Service Area: Hays County
Homeless Outreach Mitigation and Emergency Center will provide trauma-informed, mobile case management and peer-led health services to 250 marginalized Hays County residents, including unhoused veterans, individuals with disabilities, and families facing housing instability. The center will also train five local residents as certified Community Health Workers and Peer Support Specialists to build long-term capacity and improve access to housing, health care, and recovery support across both rural and urban areas.
Occupy Campus Ministry | Service Area: Hays County
Occupy Campus Ministry will serve over 850 low-income and first-generation college students in Hays County through its Wellness on Wheels initiative, delivering food, mental health support, and financial literacy resources via a mobile outreach van. This service removes transportation barriers, trains student leaders, and hosts 25+ events to foster dignity, wellness, and belonging across rural and commuter student communities.
Breaking Bread Ministries | Service Area: Hays County
Breaking Bread Outreach Ministries will serve 200 underserved residents in Hays County by expanding access to food, clothing, hygiene supplies, and mental health support. This program strengthens organizational infrastructure, board leadership, and volunteer capacity to build long-term sustainability, deepen community impact, and foster healing through a holistic, relationship-based approach.
Lions Legacy Community Development | Service Area: Caldwell County
Lions Legacy Community Development will serve 200 rural residents, including at least 20 youth previously unable to access enrichment opportunities, by launching a shared-use community shuttle in Caldwell County, expanding access to education, wellness, and recreation, while also supporting five nonprofit partners in overcoming transportation barriers through this innovative, community-driven mobility initiative.
Elgin Cares | Service Area: Bastrop County
Elgin Cares will directly serve 200 historically marginalized residents, engaging 100 families through community events and supporting 80 seniors with wellness check-ins, fitness, and mental health services. Additionally, it will build leadership skills in 40 participants and strengthen community networks through Restore Hope and expanded Senior Care initiatives across Elgin.
Mindful Sonography (Tiny Hearts Project) | Service Area: Bastrop, Hays, Caldwell, and Williamson Counties
Tiny Hearts Project will serve an estimated 2,000 individuals by piloting hands-on fetal heart screening training for at least 20 sonographers in Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, and Williamson counties. This project improves early detection of congenital heart disease among underserved rural populations, strengthening nonprofit capacity, and advancing equitable access to life-saving prenatal care.
PSJ Christ’s Xtreme Harvest Ministries Inc. | Service Area: Williamson County
PSJ Christ’s Xtreme Harvest Ministries will serve 15,000 rural Williamson County residents through monthly faith-based outreach events that provide spiritual care, basic needs support, youth mentorship, and volunteer leadership training, while building a pipeline of empowered residents to lead healing-centered initiatives in their communities.
Smithville Workforce Training Center | Service Area: Bastrop and Caldwell County
Smithville Workforce Training Center’s CNA Success Pathways Program will support 40 low-income and underserved adult learners in Bastrop and Caldwell counties. This program provides wraparound services, including transportation, housing, and basic needs assistance to help them complete their CNA training, earn certification, and secure employment in the health care field.
Pink Love Houston | Service Area: Bastrop County
Pink Love Houston will serve 250 Bastrop County residents, particularly BIPOC and low-income individuals, through free WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Plan) seminars and creative, trauma-informed wellness workshops. These workshops build emotional resilience, reduce isolation, and foster culturally responsive healing and community connection.
Hays Cares | Service Area: Hays County
Hays Cares will serve 1,400 children with new socks and shoes during its annual Shoes of Hope event, while connecting an additional 3,500 community members to critical health, education, and support services. This service uplifts families across Hays County through compassion, dignity, and the foundational message that every child deserves to walk confidently into the school year.
Caldwell County Community Services Foundation | Service Area: Caldwell County
The Caldwell County Opportunity Youth Initiative will engage 20 young people ages 16–24 who are disconnected from school and work, providing outreach, leadership development, and wraparound support to increase connection, confidence, and long-term opportunity. This initiative elevates youth voice and builds community capacity to address systemic barriers across Caldwell County.
Power 2 Prosper Community Development Corporations | Service Area: Hays County
Power 2 Prosper will train 20 pastors, clergy, and faith-based nonprofit leaders from historically marginalized populations in Hays County through a nine-month leadership institute. This program equips them with grant writing, nonprofit development, and community engagement skills to expand services and collectively impact 500–1,000 residents across rural and underserved communities.
Mosaic Advocacy | Service Area: Williamson County
Mosaic Advocacy will serve 25 system-involved parents in Williamson County through Texas’s first peer mentorship program for Child Protective Services (CPS). This service supports impacted families, employing parents with lived experience as paid mentors to promote safe reunification, increase family stability, and build community leadership capacity to break cycles of trauma and foster long-term healing.
Williamson-Burnet County Opportunities | Service Area: Williamson County
Williamson-Burnet County Opportunities, Inc. will serve 70 preschool-aged children from low-income and historically marginalized communities in Round Rock by expanding a partnership with the YMCA to deliver weekly physical education, motor skill development, and community wellness activities. These services promote early childhood health, academic readiness, and family engagement.
Caldwell County Homeless Coalition | Service Area: Caldwell County
The Caldwell County Homeless Coalition will serve over 300 unhoused individuals and reach 4,000 community members through a mobile outreach booth. This program expands education, services, and support across Caldwell County by bringing resources directly to schools, markets, health fairs, and emergency events. This coalition also strengthens community awareness and countywide response to homelessness.
St. Vincent DePaul St. Mary’s | Service Area: Hays County
St. Vincent de Paul at St. Mary’s in Wimberley will provide rental assistance to 100 low-income residents in rural Hays County, primarily seniors, day laborers, and service workers. These efforts will help prevent homelessness and stabilize households facing unexpected crises such as illness, job loss, or transportation issues.
Betas of Lockhart | Service Area: Caldwell County
Betas of Lockhart will serve 330 unhoused individuals in Caldwell County by partnering with the Caldwell County Homeless Coalition to provide health monitoring tools such as blood pressure cuffs and thermometers within client care boxes. This assistance will help address urgent health access gaps for this vulnerable population through a community-driven, volunteer-led initiative.
Bastrop County Emergency Food Pantry Inc. | Service Area: Bastrop County
Mesa Abierta (Open Table) is a pilot program of the Bastrop County Emergency Food Pantry that addresses the gap in services for Hispanic and Spanish-speaking residents, who make up 45% of the county but only 20% of Pantry clients. The program offers monthly distributions of culturally familiar foods, nutrition workshops led by a Spanish-speaking dietitian, hands-on cooking demonstrations, peer-led support circles, and family-friendly support like child care.
Caldwell County Food Bank | Service Area: Caldwell County
The CCFB Backpack Program launched in 2019 and served one school, providing 24 backpacks. The program now serves all 11 Caldwell County schools, distributing 700 bags monthly and growing as demand rises. During the 2024–2025 school year, over 100 additional bags were added. Each backpack contains ready-to-eat or easy-to-prepare, high-nutrition foods selected for children to manage with minimal supervision. Backpack food remains the Pantry’s highest monthly expense, and grant funding would directly support purchasing more food to meet increasing demand while enhancing the quality of items provided.
Learn more about the RCHF.
Congratulations to all of our 2025 RCHF grantees. We are deeply grateful to the community members, reviewers, and partners who made this work possible. Together, we’re building healthier, more connected rural communities.