La Colina Linda, LCL Farm

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La Colina Linda, LCL Farm Organic farm-food forest, vegan plant-based meals tiffins. Hiking, cycling, birding, Shawnee w**e trail. Se habla español. Raw and gluten-free options available.

We are a one-acre certified organic farm and orchard. We offer vegan plant-based w**e trail tiffins and other catered meals for the w**e trail and gatherings up to 15 people. Quarterly farm to table vegan gluten-free feasts. Meals are prepared by Vegan Fusion teacher, Kathy Ward, A Veg Seed. The farm is in the heart of the Shawnee National Forest, Giant City State Park and Shawnee W**e Trail. The LCL Farm focuses on the organic, veganic, and sustainable cultivation of fruits and vegetables and their preparation and consumption in a plant‐based system.

03/06/2026

Vice Admiral Nancy Lacore, one of the senior military leaders fired without cause by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last summer, is running for the Congressional seat of Republican Nancy Mace in South Carolina's 1st Congressional District -- turning her dismissal from the Pentagon into a fight to flip a Republican House seat.

"After decades of service to our country, a career that started as a Navy pilot and finished as a three-star admiral, I was removed from my position without cause," Lacore declared in her campaign announcement. "I still have more to give, more to fight for, more work to do -- and I am not done serving."

As she told Reserve & National Guard Magazine last week, “I spent 35 years defending the Constitution and upholding the rights and freedoms that are in it. I’m concerned that is at risk right now.”

Lacore is a trailblazer in every sense: a Navy veteran who began her career as a helicopter pilot and rose to become a three-star admiral and the 16th Chief of the Navy Reserve, where she led more than 60,000 sailors. A native of Albany, New York, she followed in her father's footsteps by accepting an ROTC scholarship to the College of the Holy Cross, earning her naval aviator wings in 1993.

Over three and a half decades, she accumulated approximately 1,300 flight hours in military aircraft, deployed to Afghanistan in 2011, commanded Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, and served as the 93rd Commandant of Naval District Washington before ascending to lead the Navy Reserve. Her awards include the Legion of Merit, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, four Meritorious Service Medals, and four Navy Commendation Medals.

Her firing on August 22, 2025 -- exactly one year after taking command of the Navy Reserve -- came alongside Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, who led the Defense Intelligence Agency, and Rear Adm. Milton Sands, who commanded the Navy SEALs. The Defense Department offered no explanation for her dismissal beyond the catchall "loss of confidence," the same vague justification Hegseth has used to fire dozens of America's most senior military leaders.

Ironically, this unprecedented purge has been conducted by the least qualified Defense Secretary in modern history -- a former Fox News TV host with no senior military command experience, no experience managing large organizations, and no previous government service at any level.

This systematic dismantling of military leadership has alarmed national security experts across the political spectrum. Five former defense secretaries -- including retired Gen. Jim Mattis, Trump's own first defense secretary -- condemned the firings as "reckless" in a joint letter to Congress, asking for "immediate hearings to assess the national security implications" of the dismissals.

Former National Security Council member Kori Schake, a George W. Bush adviser, said the Trump administration is "squandering an enormous amount of talent." Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, a Marine officer who served in Iraq and now sits on the House Armed Services Committee, was blunter: "That's a recipe not just for a politicized military, but an authoritarian military. That's the way militaries work in Russia and China and North Korea."

In Lacore's case, her extensive military record and broader community service show the high caliber of leader that Hegseth has dismissed without cause. After returning from Afghanistan in 2012, she visited the Women in Military Service for America Memorial for the first time and found herself paging through a book devoted to the stories of women who died in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and realized that even after 24 years in the Navy and her own deployment to a war zone, she had no idea how many women had been killed.

"As a woman who had just served in Afghanistan, I really had no idea who had been killed, how many, what services," she said. "And so, I was like, 'You know what, I can do something about this.'"

So she did. In 2014, Lacore founded Valor Run, running 160 miles in 160 hours -- one mile for each of the 160 American servicewomen who died in Iraq and Afghanistan -- from Chesapeake, Virginia to the Women's Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, raising $33,000 for military charities.

"It's not about me running," she said at the time. "It's about the people coming together and recognizing all the women who have died." The nonprofit ran for ten years, awarding more than $30,000 in scholarships to children whose mothers served in those wars.

Lacore's campaign is centered on putting people first -- affordability, opportunity, and honoring service. "Hard work should result in a stable life," she said. "Americans deserve a lower cost of living -- housing, healthcare, childcare, and daily essentials -- so families, seniors, veterans, and young Americans can build secure futures." With four of her six children now in the workforce, she knows the challenges young people, in particular, are facing firsthand.

South Carolina's 1st District, which includes Charleston, Beaufort, and the surrounding Lowcountry, leans Republican -- Trump won it by 13 points in 2024. But there's precedent for an upset: in 2018, Democrat Joe Cunningham flipped this very seat in one of the biggest upsets of the midterm cycle, becoming the first Democrat to represent the Charleston-based district since 1981. Cunningham lost narrowly to Mace in 2020, but Democrats believe that in a wave election year, with the right candidate, the seat could flip again.

Nancy Lacore -- a decorated combat veteran, a three-star admiral, a mother of six, and the founder of a nonprofit to honor fallen servicewomen -- may be exactly that candidate. As she declared: "I've served my whole life, and I'm not done yet."

To learn more about Nancy Lacore's campaign and how to get involved, visit https://www.nancylacore.com/

For women considering running for office at any level, there are several organizations that can help including Emerge America (https://emergeamerica.org), Vote Run Lead (https://voterunlead.org/), and She Should Run (https://www.sheshouldrun.org)

For books for children about trailblazing female political leaders in the U.S. -- both historically and in modern times -- visit our blog post, “Remember the Ladies: 25 Children's Books on Women in Politics” at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=11162

For a children's book that gives groundbreaking women in the military, past and present, the respect they deserve, we highly recommend "Heroism Begins With Her: Inspiring Stories of Bold, Brave, and Gutsy Women in the U.S. Military" for ages 9 and up at https://www.amightygirl.com/heroism-begins-with-her

For more books for young readers that honor the service of women in the military, visit our blog post "The Price of Peace: A Mighty Girl Recognizes Veterans" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=12356

For books for children and teens about the importance of standing up for truth, decency, and justice, even in dark times, visit our blog post, "Dissent Is Patriotic: 50 Books About Women Who Fought for Change," at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=14364

To stay connected with A Mighty Girl, you can sign-up for our free email newsletter at https://www.amightygirl.com/forms/newsletter

Thanks to ABC News for sharing this image!

01/22/2026

There's a kind of defiant hope -- a kind of resistance -- that only emerges in dark times. It's what happens when everyday people choose humanity over fear. When a community refuses to look away while their neighbors are hunted.

It looks like a church parking lot full of volunteers loading groceries into cars. A line of strangers signing up for delivery routes they've never driven. A human chain passing boxes of food out into the cold.

In Minneapolis, where over 3,000 heavily armed, masked federal agents have turned neighborhoods into occupied territory, that hope is taking shape in thousands of small acts of solidarity. As entire communities have become too terrified to step outside -- too aware they could be targeted simply for the color of their skin -- people are refusing to let their neighbors go hungry. They're refusing to look away.

This is one story of how the community is rising up.

At Dios Habla Hoy, a church in south Minneapolis, what started as a few hundred grocery deliveries a week has exploded into something much larger. Nearly 25,000 requests for help have come in recent weeks. Volunteers have made over 14,000 deliveries so far -- boxes of food brought directly to the doors of people too afraid to step outside. Bringing 50,000 to 70,000 pounds of food a week to families living in hiding -- in America.

Pastor Sergio Amezcua is at the center of it. He ran a smaller version of this program during the pandemic, but what's happening now, he says, is worse. The fear cuts deeper. It's not just undocumented immigrants hiding inside -- it's U.S. citizens. People born here. ICE agents are stopping people on the streets, going door to door, pulling over cars, demanding papers -- detaining anyone who can't immediately prove their citizenship.

Amezcua himself is an immigrant from Mexico, and describes himself as a conservative. When he first heard ICE was coming to Minneapolis, he wasn't worried -- agents would go after criminals, he figured, and then leave. That's what the Trump administration kept saying after all; that's what they keep claiming to justify the unjustifiable.

What he's seen since has shattered that assumption.

"This is literally racism in the name of patriotism -- and a conservative guy is telling you that," he said. "I feel betrayed by Donald Trump."

Amezcua recounts how, when they first announced the drive on social media -- telling families they could help if they were scared to leave their homes -- he was expecting a few dozen requests. Within eight hours, they had over 2,000 families asking for help.

The need has only kept growing, but so has the response. Volunteers have been lining up at the church in droves, waiting to sign up for delivery shifts. Donations keep pouring in. Amezcua is already working to open more distribution hubs across the city. No one knows how long this will last -- but the community is settling in for the long haul.

On Friday afternoon, despite falling snow and freezing temperatures, the church parking lot was a hive of activity. Germaine Grueneberg, a Minneapolis resident, was among the volunteers. She spoke of the need that many people in Minnesota -- and around the country -- have felt: the need to take action, to do something in the face of unrelenting cruelty. That the time for inaction has passed. That everyone needs to step up.

"The desperation is palpable right now, and we need to do something," Grueneberg said. "I'm lucky enough to have the privilege of a comfortable home, being able to buy my own food, being able to go out and feel somewhat safe. It's about time we support our neighbors."

You can support their food drive to help immigrant families in Minneapolis at https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/despensas-food-drive -- and follow their efforts at DHH Church

There is also a state-wide day of action against ICE tomorrow in Minnesota -- learn more at https://www.iceoutnowmn.com/

To help those working on the ground in Minnesota to protect the Constitutional rights of immigrants, you can support the critical work of the Immigrant Defense Network at https://immigrantdefensenetwork.org/

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For children's books that encourage empathy and understanding of Mighty Girl immigrants of the past and present, visit our blog post, "A New Land, A New Life: 25 Mighty Girl Books About the Immigrant Experience" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=12855

For books for children and teens about people helping others in their communities experiencing hardship, visit our blog post "Cultivating Compassion: 25 Books About Financial Hardship Close to Home" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog/?p=10049

For a heartwarming book that addresses an issue kids rarely hear about -- hunger in their local community and how they can help -- we highly recommend “Maddi’s Fridge” for ages 4 to 8 at https://www.amightygirl.com/maddi-s-fridge

For Mighty Girl books that teach children about the importance of giving -- both through charity and community service -- you can find many reading recommendations in our blog post: "Making an Impact: 40 Mighty Girl Books About Charity and Community Service” at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=10983

For more empathy-building book for young kids about the importance of compassion and being kind to others, visit our blog post "25 Children's Books That Teach Kids to Be Kind," at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=19359

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To read more about the food drive campaign in MN, visit https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/us/minnesota-groceries-church-volunteer-ice-trump.html

You can also watch a short news segment about their efforts at https://www.facebook.com/reel/1929226864668427

Address

610 Heern Road
Cobden, IL
62920

Opening Hours

3pm - 6pm

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+16185591059

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