Thistle Farms founder Becca Stevens is used to seeing women battle hard times. The ordained Episcopal Priest founded Thistle Farms in 1997, aimed at helping women who have survived trafficking, prostitution and addiction find wholeness and healing. While COVID-19 has been a trying time for many, it has been especially problematic for marginalized women already overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds, inspiring Becca to work even harder than ever.

“The pandemic didn’t create the violence and vulnerability that women experience in poverty and being trafficked,” Becca explained to CNN. “It didn’t create the injustices within our penal system. But it amplified those and reminded us how the most vulnerable in our community are more susceptible to the challenges entire communities face.”

Becca is married to hit songwriter Marcus Hummon. Together the two, along with their three adult children, they have increased their efforts to support their entire community, not just the women of Thistle Farms, during the global pandemic.

“My family and I started a front-porch pantry where we take donations on our front porch and deliver them directly to the front porches of folks who are really, really vulnerable right now,” Becca revealed. “They started sharing the food with other vulnerable folks in our community; it may be an asylum-seeker, it may be somebody that had lost their job.”

The Café at Thistle Farms, which employs 15 women, all survivors of often unimaginable struggles, had to close due to COVID-19, reopening as soon as it was safe. But even while much of the operations of Thistle Farms, which includes an entire line of candles, soaps, oils, home decor items and more, had to temporarily shut down, the pandemic only made Becca and her team want to work harder than ever.

“You don’t abandon people in these times. You champion people and champion each other,” she said. “The most vulnerable populations, we have loved and served for more than two decades. We keep reaching out and serving the most vulnerable in our communities.”

Find out more about Thistle Farms by visiting their website.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Thistle Farms