Maria Garcia couldn’t bear to attend the nightly meals near Triangle Lake, where for several weeks, the smell of pinto beans, turkey necks, and other soul food staples filled the air outside a federal children’s detention facility in southeast Houston.

The Southern home-cooked meals had become a supportive ritual, one that Garcia appreciated but was too difficult for her to take part in. Garcia’s son, who has an intellectual disability, remained locked inside for 48 days. Other mothers of children with neurological and development disorders stepped in.

“We need to be there every night. Because while the world scrolls and moves on, there’s still a baby waking up in a place that isn’t his home,” Cathi Rae, a member of Autism Moms of Houston, wrote in an October blog post. “A baby who can’t make sense of where his mom went or why she hasn’t come to get him.”

On Oct. 18, Rae started the nightly dinners from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the park bench across the street from the facility. She and other mothers knew that though he couldn’t see them, it was a way to show 15-year-old Emmanuel Alexander Gonzalez Garcia that he was not alone.