HTX-LHK: Impact 11/3/2025

Fig & Table Coffee Co. officials opened the business's new location in Kingwood on Nov. 1.

The details: Owned by Jeremy and Jessica Eslinger, Fig & Table Coffee Co. offers a space for community members to come together over coffee and scones, according to previous reporting by Community Impact.

In addition to the brick-and-mortar storefront, Fig & Table Coffee Co.'s scones are available through online orders and catering services. Through the company's website, patrons can also purchase Fig & Table Coffee Co.'s coffee beans and merchandise.

• 2269 Northpark Drive, Kingwood

On Dec. 10, Noah’s Give-A-Gift, a local nonprofit that helps schools, will mark one year since its launch. The organization chose its first recipient school Dec. 10, 2024.

The backstory: Lindsay and Nicholas Carthen founded the organization in honor of their son, Noah Martin Carthen, who died Dec. 10, 2018, at 20 months old. 

Quote of note: “Since Noah's passing in 2018, God blessed us with our rainbow baby, Eliana, [who is six years old], and our sunshine, Callen [who is four years old],” Lindsay Carthen said. “We have since felt Noah's presence when a butterfly flies by.”

Giving back: Noah’s Give-A-Gift leaders select a school with high rates of students coming from low-income families and donate resources to help. This year, New Caney ISD’s Oakley Elementary has been selected to be the recipient, and clothing and Christmas toys will be donated to students.
 

Harris County commissioners voted unanimously Oct. 30 to push back the proposed Dec. 11 public hearing for the Harris Health and the Ben Taub Hospital expansion in Houston’s Texas Medical Center. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo was absent.

The bottom line: Several amendments, internal deadlines and meetings are now being coordinated by county and city of Houston stakeholders as part of a potential expansion plan that will include community input and a formal presentation in January. Commissioners set the new date for the public hearing in March.

The context: Harris Health officials are in the process of a major expansion of Ben Taub Hospital, which would incorporate 8.9 acres of Hermann Park. Esmaeil Porsa, Harris Health president and CEO, said at the Oct. 30 meeting that the expansion must occur at this location for several reasons that would support more than 1 million uninsured individuals.

“It would allow this facility to be part of Ben Taub and won’t need additional licensing,” Porsa said.

Millions of Texans may see delays in their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits beginning Nov. 1, as the federal government shutdown reaches the one-month mark.

The latest: The federal food assistance program is set to run out of funding in November, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Two federal judges ruled Oct. 31 that the Trump Administration must use federal contingency funds, which are stockpiled for emergency expenses, to fund SNAP in November, although the next steps surrounding SNAP benefits were unclear as of press time.

The local impact: Over 3.5 million Texans receive SNAP benefits each month, according to Feeding Texas, the statewide network of food banks.

“People are at risk of going hungry if the government doesn't reopen and SNAP benefits are delayed. … These are already vulnerable Texans,” Feeding Texas CEO Celia Cole said in an Oct. 27 interview.

Food banks across the state Texas food banks previously expanded their operations to meet increased demand as thousands of federal workers go without paychecks during the shutdown.