The community celebrated with good food, music, dancing and camaraderie, all in the name of keeping Hays County residents fed. The Hays County Food Bank held its annual gala on Saturday, Feb. 28 at Texas Old Town in Kyle to raise funds for the nonprofit organization.
Lisa Young, Hays County Food Bank Executive Director, said working at the Food Bank is not easy; it’s exhausting, and they are “under the gun” a lot of the time.
“But it makes it worthwhile when one person comes and tells you their kid would not have had a birthday cake if they hadn’t come to the Food Bank that day, or they’ve never had that much food in their life at one time,” Young said. “We hear this all the time.”
Young talked about the new location and the recently opened market that allows eligible residents to stock up on $150 of food of their own choosing. The Food Bank also recently started another program called Van Go, which is a mobile extension of the Go Bag Program. Young said this has expanded the program reach by increasing the amount of Go Bags distributed from 70 to 200 a month.
According to information given by the Program Director, the Food Bank gave out 1.8 million pounds of food in 2025. The total number of households served last year was 72,000. The market started in mid-August of 2025 and has since distributed 320,000 pounds of food to around 5,000 households.
“It can be easy to lose sight of what each one of those numbers represents,” Young said. “Each one of those people is a real person going through a very hard time in their life. For some people, it’s a short time. For some people, it is a lifetime of food insecurity, which can really take its toll for generations.”
Young said the Food Bank could not do all it has done without the help of its volunteers, which includes many local elected officials.
“They have all volunteered in the market. They have served with me on committees that are trying to help our homeless population,” Young said. “On the first day of the market, every volunteer was an elected official.”
Learn more at haysfoodbank. org.
