San Marcos — When Kirk Sedberry, former board president of the Hays County Food Bank, found out recently that Pat Tessaro would be leaving, his face just dropped.

He knew exactly what Tessaro meant to the Food Bank’s success.

“I thought the guy was going to start crying,” Hays Food Bank Director Jerry Gracy said. “We are all replaceable. But I don’t know if Pat’s replaceable.”

After 12 years of service, food bank public relations coordinator and former executive director Tessaro announced earlier this month that she was retiring for family reasons.  Her replacement will be Jane Moore, who also previously worked for the food bank.  Reflecting on what Tessaro has meant to the San Marcos service, Gracy says that she was always cheerful, organized and completely dedicated to the mission of the food bank.

“Anything that requires getting information out about the food bank, Pat has been a part of. She’s a member of every Chamber here. She’s a great public speaker. Everybody likes Pat,” Gracy said. “She’s only been working 20 hours a week for us, but she gets 40 hours a week done.”

Tessaro, who graduated from San Marcos High School and attended then-Southwest Texas State University, came onto the food bank in 1999 after serving as an executive assistant at Hill Country MHMR.  She had volunteered with several non profit boards before, so a friend asked her if she was going to apply at the food bank.

“And I said ‘there’s a food bank in San Marcos?’” Tessaro said. “I’ve lived here all my life and honestly I did not know there was one here.”

Tessaro was hired as executive director and was immediately taken aback by the hunger problem in San Marcos.

“Most people don’t realize the depth and scope of hunger in our society. We have this mental picture that hunger is something that happens in Africa. In the most prosperous country, how can one in four kids face hunger issues? But they do,” Tessaro said. “One in five adults in Central Texas.”

Her second day on the job, Tessaro’s boss drug her to a Chamber of Commerce breakfast, and she was asked to stand up and say a couple of words about the food bank. From there, she continued to develop relationships with people around town, spreading the word about the food bank’s needs.

“One of the first things I did that I felt was successful was join the Chamber of Commerce,” Tessaro said. “I grew here. I knew people from my church and people on my kids’ ball teams, but I didn’t know this city. And I never went to a Chamber mixer when I didn’t meet another person. They’d always see my name tag and say ‘we have a food bank?’”

Her work built a base of support: Regular volunteers and people around town who donate on a consistent basis.

“My job as to keep the brand and the mission of the food bank in front of the community 24/7. Over the years, that works,” Tessaro said.

Tessaro’s “crowning glory” as a food bank employee came in September 2005 when Hurricane Rita slammed the Texas coast, forcing evacuations in Galveston and Houston. As evacuees filled up hostels in San Antonio, they were diverted from IH-10 up Highway 123 and into San Marcos.

By late Sunday night that September, San Marcos hotels were filling up, too. Parking lots, too, were filling up with cars of people who’d been on the road for close to 36 hours.

Tessaro recalls three families sharing one car, with $10 left collectively between them, sleeping in Rio Vista Park. They’d driven to the food bank desperate for help.

“Monday morning our phone started ringing off the wall of people needing emergency food,” Tessaro said. “I was out there Monday afternoon helping make emergency boxes: It was kind of all hands on deck. People were walking in, phones were going crazy. I looked around and we had about 200 cans on the shelf. I looked at my boss and said ‘you know what? I’m going to go write a little press release. We need help. We need food.’”

Tessaro sat in front of her computer and typed up a three-paragraph press release and sent it out to a dozen or so Central Texas media outlets. The Daily Record picked it up, as did two Austin TV stations. By the next morning, Tessaro was doing remote broadcasts from the food bank with a simple message: “The phones are ringing and the shelves are bare.”

“Within the week, we had gotten I don’t even remember how many thousands of pounds of food. The food just poured in. People were just coming up and unloading their cars,” Tessaro said. “We took about $30,000 in donations in the next two weeks.”

Tessaro says that non profit employees get paid in “warm fuzzies” a lot: The faces that come in hungry and go back fulfilled. The children and senior citizens who, because of the food bank’s efforts, won’t miss another meal.

“When you go work a 9 to 5 job, that’s one thing. There’s something said for doing a job and doing it well,” Tessaro said. “But to realize that because I did my job well today a little kid is going to eat... I’m going to miss our mission.”

Three years ago, Tessaro stepped down as executive director and took as role as public relations coordinator. Gracy said that when he came in to become director, the transition was seamless: A strong testament to Tessaro’s organizational skills.

“She had detailed explanations up. Every thing was lined out perfectly. She even wrote up documents on steps for how to do everything,” Gracy said. “It leaves people saddened that she’s leaving. But we’re wishing her the best of course.”

At a going away party for her  last week, Gracy said he had to buy an extra box of kleenexes just for the occasion.

Tessaro is leaving to be the business manager for her husband Mike’s pressure washing business. She’s also going to try and stay home to care for her ailing mother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s. The food bank’s been a dream job, but it’s come time to focus on her mom. Change is good, she says: For both herself and the food bank.

“It’s sort of a season of life,” Tessaro says. “I’m looking forward to new challenges.”

But it’s hard leaving behind the people and the mission. And, of course, the warm fuzzies that come along the way.

“I’m realizing that now,” Tessaro says, wiping a tear from her face. “That I’m going to miss that a lot.”