Hays County Food Bank celebrates 40th anniversary

HAYS COUNTY — The Hays County Food Bank commemorated its 40th anniversary with a Mardi Gras-themed fundraising gala at the Winfield Inn in Kyle on Saturday, Feb. 10.

The celebration featured cocktails, games, a fire show and a silent auction. The event, organized by food bank directors and team members, aimed to raise money for the organization, as well as celebrate how far it has come.

“We are proud of our 40 years, but of course, the tradition and practice of sharing food with neighbors that need help is as old as human civilization,” said Lisa Young, executive director. “We at the food bank are honored to be part of that vast and great river of the people and societies that came before us. Helping each other, especially with such a basic need as food, is the very heart of our humanity.”

Young has been the executive director since May 2023 and is already inspired by the hard work and dedication of the food bank team.

“We’ve run over a million pounds of food through with a lot of grace and a good bit of luck, but also with a battalion of volunteers and donors. We simply could not operate without their dedication. Plus, the hardest working staff in Texas. Those people serve your community with love and care every day,” Young said.

Donors at the gala gave generous donations of up to $25,000, which will be put toward the food bank to further help the community.

“I’m so grateful for the work that our employees and our volunteers do each and every day,” said  Jayna Love, who sits on the Hays County Food Bank Board of Directors. “It really changes lives. So, I always thought if I ever got the chance to pay it forward, I would love to do that.”

Love, who was a receiver of the food bank as a teenager, is honored to serve on the board of directors for five years and counting.

“As a teenager, my parents divorced, and overnight, our family dynamic changed. I remember times were tough as my mom, a single parent, worked two jobs to keep the house bills paid. It was a time of great challenges and we really needed the extra help. The food bank gave us that help,” Love said.

The food bank is currently stationed in a little house at 220 Herndon Street in San Marcos, but plans to move to the current location of Hays County Barbeque.

“Our space is very small and the need has just been growing and growing, unfortunately,” Young said. “We’ve been looking around, planning and shopping for a new home and we think we’ve found it. We are under contract right now to purchase the Hays County Barbeque Restaurant on IH-35 in San Marcos.”

Young hopes to advance the services available at the new location. There are plans for new facilities in the larger, two-building area, including a shopping-styled area and community garden, along with existing services, that will help recipients get what they need.

“We’ll have a hybrid model. We’ll still have our operation where we bring bags to unhoused people or people living in hotels and our home delivery system, but we will also be able to add, because of the added space, a client choice model where people have a shopping time and they come in and pick their own groceries rather than taking pre-packed boxes like we’re doing now,” Young said. “I just think that’s gonna be great. It’ll reduce food waste because people will pick something that they think that they’ll cook and I think it’ll just increase the dignity of people being able to pick their own food.”

Team members hope the food bank will continue to grow and develop in coming years and continue to make a difference in the community.

“I’m going to close out [by] saying that — and staff, you’ve already heard me quote this Coca Cola commercial from before you were born — but it completely captures how I feel about this and how I hope you will too,” Young said. “‘I want to build the world a house and furnish it with love. And together, we can build that house.’”