The new home of the Hays County Food Bank (HCFB) will be relocated to the current Hays Co. Bar-b-que building on Interstate-35, with plans for completion slated tentatively for 2025.
HCFB Executive Director Lisa Young made the announcement of the $4.5 million purchase Saturday night during the food bank’s 40th anniversary gala at the Winfield Inn in Kyle. It was the first time the food bank has ever hosted a gala for donors, with San Marcos Mayor Jane Hughson contributing a $25,000 sponsorship, in addition to other local public officials and businesses pitching in.
“I think the best part of it is that so many people had a hand in it,” Young said. “It really shows to me, what we do as a food bank, it brings different people from the community to contribute with funds, with volunteering, and it comes together to be such a beautiful thing, and that’s why I think this night was really successful.”
The food bank has been at its current location on Herndon Street for the last several years, but plans for a new building have been in conversation since 2006.
“The Hays County Food Bank is going to purchase our current location on Interstate 35 where we have the brand new building and five acres,” Michael Hernandez, who owns Hays Co. Bar-b-que with his wife Asenette, said. “We will be relocating. At this time, we are negotiating with a couple of places, and we will announce where we’ll be moving when that gets finalized. As the Hernandez family, we wanted to scale back and enjoy life a little bit.”
The food bank’s current 2,200 square foot building served 154,000 Hays County residents in 2022, distributing 1.2 million pounds of food just in that year alone. According to the HCFB website, they have seen a 200% increase since before the pandemic and the rise of inflation.
The new space, located at 1612 S. I-35, will come with two buildings on the property, one being double the size of the Herndon Street warehouse. Previous talks with developers had initially proposed building a new facility on Hunter Road by the Village of San Marcos campus, but the price of building materials after COVID-19 put that idea on pause.
“New construction costs have risen so much, so it really, you know, made us want to look at other things, to buy an already existing building,” Young said. “And this building is perfect for us. It really is. It’s going to smell like BBQ, but we’re going to learn to live with that.”
Young said this will be a transformative effort, with the new building being able to provide a community garden and allow food bank clients to have more choice in the products they select. Currently, food bank staff are in development with architects for remodeling and revisions that will help give the building more of a market space with the efficiency of the warehouse model.
“We want to make sure everything can elevate our services that we are offering clients,” Young said. “This will allow families to pick out the groceries. We will also be able to grade and reduce food waste.”
HCFB Warehouse and Facilities Coordinator Tory Capes said on average, 350 families attend their 2-hour food bank distribution on Mondays. The leftover food from distributions is given to partner organizations, known as “last mile sites.” Capes said those groups help reach even more vulnerable Hays County residents, reducing the amount of food wasted.
“A lot of our last mile sites that we work with ... a lot of that food goes out, donated food or food from retail sites like H-E-B or Walmart, that food gets shared with the Hays County Women’s Shelter, Southside Community Center, other churches,” Capes said.
Former HCFB employee Pat Tessaro said the demand and urgency for a bigger facility has only been mitigated by the cost of living, evidenced by the number of support organizations passing out food beyond in-house distributions.
“It’s an interesting thing because the economy is booming on one hand, but on the other hand, there are more people living paycheck to paycheck,” Tessaro said. “When I worked at the food bank around the year 2000, 40% of the people lived paycheck to paycheck, and now that percentage is up to close to 70 to 75% of households who live paycheck to paycheck. And so, a food emergency can happen really to anyone.”
HCFB Board of Directors Vice President Mark Jones agreed and said while the economic growth in the area has been a boon for business, the reality for many residents isn’t the same.
“Hays County is the fastest growing county in the United States,” Jones said. “Over the last 10 years, we’ve seen more people becoming food insecure, and we’ve just outgrown our current building. It’s really important we get a better facility, more efficient and the larger facility to serve people living in Hays County.”
For more information or to donate, visit the Hays County Food Bank website.
