A Church World Service employee and local volunteers help pack grocery bags for Houston area refugees, April 17. Photo by Hope Yang, Houston Newsroom.
A hundred paper bags lined the Church World Service office on April 17, filled with rice, chickpeas, frosted flakes, and other groceries for Houston area refugees.
CWS is one of the many nonprofits affected by the pause on the United States Refugees Admissions Program last January, which organizers said led to frozen funds and more need.
Now, they’re increasing collaboration with other organizations and the Houston community to serve refugees.
Rebecca Harrison, CWS associate director of development, organized the food pantry event, which saw 17 local volunteers.
She said that, for her, the past year was difficult.
“It’s exhausting to have to not know what’s available and then to try to walk alongside clients who are wondering, ‘I heard this, but now it’s this,’” Harrison said.
She said it was a “crazy time” last year due to the funding cuts.
“There was a time when there was only seven of us left here, but there was still human beings that needed help,” Harrison said. “People that had just arrived and they didn’t have any services.”
CWS Associate Director of Development Rebecca Harrison introduces local volunteers to the work that they will be doing during a grocery bagging event. Photo by Hope Yang, Houston Newsroom.
CWS Texas Director Kimberly Haynes said that due the funding cuts, she furloughed 99.9% of her employees within eight weeks — before bringing 60% back.
“[It] meant we laid off people, meant we had programs and services in disarray, meant we had clients in desperate circumstances,” Haynes said.
The unstable funding landscape has led to organizations like Catholic Charities Archdiocese Galveston-Houston and YMCA International Services stepping back, Haynes said.
For CWS, Haynes said this has led to staff taking on more work.
“We’re all wearing three to five hats right now, and that is just the reality,” Haynes said.
Haynes said that the main two sources of funding for C-W-S are from the federal government and the state government.
Texas pulled out of the refugee resettlement program in 2017. State money was also frozen last year.
“There’s somewhere between $25 million and $55 million owed to the State of Texas for refugee money and supportive services that we have not received and that nobody is receiving,” Haynes said.
As a result, Haynes said CWS was only able to serve 7,000 out of 10,000 potential clients in 2025.
Over the two-hour long grocery bagging event at CWS offices, volunteers packed 100 bags of groceries. Photo by Hope Yang, Houston Newsroom.
Susanna Lubanga, International Rescue Committee’s executive director for Texas, said refugee services are no longer as available.
“That might look like shorter service periods that we can serve clients, that might look like higher case loads for our staff, which of course leads to burnout,” Lubanga said.
As a result, Lubanga said nonprofits are working together to fill the gaps.
“It’s really looking at how can we leverage each other’s strength in that time of scarcity to ensure we can provide the most services possible to the most vulnerable in our communities,” Lubanga said.
Harrison said this has also been the case for CWS.
“That’s one of those things that’s come out of this. It’s like, ‘Look, we’ve got to work together more,’” Harrison said.
During the grocery bagging event, CWS employees were joined by local volunteers from nonprofit houston welcomes refugees and St. Agnes Academy.
Eunice Lee, a high school student at St. Agnes, brought over a dozen students to the event. She started the nonprofit STARS, or standing together assisting refugee students.
“I’ve always been involved in refugee volunteering since I was in middle school, and then, my sophomore year of high school, I started this club with this senior at the time,” Lee said.
Volunteers from nonprofit organizations houston welcomes refugees and STARS pack bags of chickpeas for refugee clients. Photo by Hope Yang, Houston Newsroom.
Despite the added help, Haynes says the future looks uncertain for Houston nonprofits in the refugee sphere due to unstable funding.
“I suspect next year we will shrink, we will all shrink,” Haynes said.
Haynes said that CWS will run for as long as possible.
“We’re going to do as much as we can for as long as we can and when the end comes we’ll know that we’ve made the difference,” Haynes said.
Harrison said that she hopes to continue inviting people into the work CWS is doing.
“I actually think that there are faith communities and schools and civic organizations and even individuals, maybe even companies, that want to step in to be the humanitarian answer that we need,” Harrison said.