By LYNETTE HAALAND, Four Points News

Laney Lyons of Steiner Ranch was named “Citizen of the Year” by the West Austin Chamber of Commerce last week for the work Lyons does with Community First Village and school children in East Austin.

Lyons — an entrepreneur who owns two small businesses: Hiring and

Empowering, a staffing and coaching company, and Back Office Drafting, a virtual paralegal services company — moved from Tampa, Fla. to Austin almost four years ago.

As she made Austin her home, she became involved in serving at Community First Village, which houses formerly homeless people. She also started volunteering at a housing project in East Austin.

She initially started volunteering to fill a void.

“I began doing a Mobile Loaves & Fishes food truck run to feed the homeless after my divorce,” Lyons said. She moved to Austin with her now ex-husband when he received a job offer. She stayed here with their young son after they divorced.

“No one has a child thinking you will have to ‘share time’ with them,” she said. “(So) rather than sit home sad when my son was with his dad, I started doing food truck runs.”

From there she heard about Community First, a MLF project, and started volunteering. The East Austin project was one of the stops on her food truck run.

“One day a friend of mine in Steiner said, ‘Hey if I make a bunch of baked potatoes can you take them out on the food trucks?’ I was like well, they don’t take hot food but residents have moved in at Community First and I bet they’d love some hot baked potatoes,” she said.

Lyons was put in touch with Tricia Graham at Community First and they set a date. Lyons and her then boyfriend, now husband John, took down the potatoes and some watermelon and lemonade and served dinner to the 20 or so people who live there at that time.  

That first night they had a bunch of leftover potatoes. Lyons didn’t want to throw them away so she thought of the housing project in East Austin where the food that the trucks bring is often the only dinner they have.  

“We took the leftover potatoes there and they loved them,” she said.

They hung out for a bit with the kids and they mentioned they needed school supplies.

“I was like oh, I live in a neighborhood that can totally get you school supplies – our mamas don’t let kids go without school supplies,” Lyons said. She put up a Facebook request and it’s grown from there to collect school supplies, shoes, coats and Christmas, Halloween and Easter party items. She estimates this helps support 80 children.

“Steiner has been so good,” Lyons said. “Now people know what I do so they will ask ‘Hey I have this or that, can you find someone who can use it?’ So it’s kinda cool they check and see who might be in need before donating or throwing something away.

Donations also help Lyons and her team to now feed roughly 100 people at Community First Village every Thursday.

After the first-time potato delivery, Lyons started doing meal delivery more frequently.  

“We started doing this monthly – my friend would make the potatoes, we’d go serve them,” Lyons said. More people wanted to help so it became weekly. Now the team serves about 100 meals weekly.

Lyons coordinates with Nicole Emerson, with Austin Realty, and Min Werkheiser on the meals each week and attends each Thursday. Between the three of them they coordinate the others attending/providing food.

“Essentially everyone who goes down to the Village says it’s the part of the week they look forward to the most,” she said.

The delivery of weekly meals provides also a time for fellowship. It is a time to know they are not forgotten, Lyons said. “Receiving a home cooked meal and lots of hugs and smiles makes a huge difference for them.”

By serving others and alongside others, Lyons has been filled herself.  

“It’s not lost on me though that when I moved here my marriage fell apart, I was bitter, nervous about having to be a sole income household on a new business I’d just started, all my family was in Florida, and I was quite resentful to be here ‘alone’,” she said.

She said through serving others she found her family.

“The kids in East Austin and residents at Community First have become my family, as well as the people in Steiner I’ve met through this work,” Lyons said. Additionally she married John last year and now he and their two sons serve together. “It’s a key part of our family.”