Human Services Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

Alright. Welcome to the May regular meeting of the Human Services Advisory Board. I'm calling the meeting to order at 06:05PM. Thank you all for attending. Carol, will you please have the role for the record of board member attendance? Okay. Noah Henry.

Here.

Yancey Aravalo. Present. Raymond Best.

Here.

Oh, I'm just talking in. Okay? I'll come back to her evening office. Here. Sherry?

Here. Madeline Smith? Here.

I'm sorry. I didn't get the the technology.

Here.

Okay.

This is Five.

Six. Oh, do we count?

We can't count when we do it.

Okay. So and we don't count.

We want to count now.

Not so he doesn't count in the quorum. So you can have to skip five. Okay. Yeah.

So with five out of seven voting members in attendance, we have

a quorum.

And it is now time for the citizen common period period. Anyone is allowed to speak on any topic for up to three minutes. If you would like to speak during this citizen comment period, will you please raise your hand?

Oh, and I don't have any.

Alright.

The minutes from the past four HSAB meetings will be provided to the board prior to all leader meeting. For real. So we're not voting. Alright. We will receive an an approximately ten minute presentation by the following applicant agencies for each program for which an agency has applied for grant funding. Each presentation will be followed by an approximately ten minute question and answer session between board members and the agency regarding the program or application. Carol will introduce each presentation, and we'll keep track of the time. Carol, the floor is yours.

Okay. Our first three presentations are different, like, very separate programs for

the Hayes Caldwell Medicine Center.

Holly Cunningham Kaiser, the chief development officer for the organization, is here to present in person. And so the first one on the agenda is the child abuse program for Roxanne's house. And I would ask the board members, like, to consider each individually. So we'll only focus on that programming then on the So the floor is yours. Thank you.

Share my screen. So

I'm here on behalf of the Hayes Caldwell Women's Center here in San Marcos. We've been providing services to survivors of abuse for almost fifty years. Our first application tonight is for our child abuse program, Roxanne's house.

Apparently, my battery is hard.

Not

sure why it went sure why it went.

My mic is muted.

It's interesting. Why don't we just I'll show it, and then can we talk.

This taking off time?

Think it's all muted. Okay. So, y'all, thanks for rejoining. We're gonna need to wait for our to do board members to come back so they can participate. I'm gonna send them the agenda.

My screen keeps blacking out. So what I'm trying to do is while the IT person joined me. Now my camera's not working in. Okay. So sorry. Don't know. Busy. It's not like

that ideal fun things to be doing. Very

simple. K. That's. And here's Kylie.

Yes. If you I made it into the meeting. If you give me permission to share screen, I can share the presentation that way.

Okay. Let me make you a presenter. Right now you should get it. Oh. Let me make the The license lysis. Is IT. The rest of the people on this are next recent years, so we're all just waiting. Okay. You're up and running. Okay. Good. So then

Okay. I think we're ready. I'm sorry. Can I

double check the recording? Sure. Okay. It's recording and everything. So good to go. Okay. So introduction. Mhmm. Blanco River Regional Recovery Team or BRPC is gonna present next on their housing stability services program application. And we have here with us Elizabeth is in the yellow, Elizabeth Wills, executive director, and then Kylie Contreras sitting next to her is assistant program director. And so I'm like, oh, okay.

Alright. Yes. So Carol introduced herself, but I'm Kylie Minferis, assistant program director and case manager. Elizabeth Wills, executive director.

And I'm sorry. I'm gonna let y'all know the speakers right there, but Duke's.

Okay. You got Okay. So BR three t, Blanca River Regional Recovery Team, was established in 2015 after the devastating Memorial Day floods. So for over ten years, we've been the long term recovery group for Hays County and the three neighboring counties along the Blanco River that flooded. We coordinate assistance to address the unmet needs for local disaster survivors.

And in 2020, we started our housing stability services program, which provided important or much needed rent during the pandemic rent relief during the pandemic. And then in that went for a few years. And then in 2025, when the pandemic funding began to, you know, go down and disappear, it was clear to us that the community's need for housing support still remained very high, and we decided to make our housing stability services program permanent. So our vision is safe, secure, and stable housing for all our residents. Okay.

So our program helps our low income residents who are in crisis. Helps them either obtain stable housing or maintain stable housing. We can pay security deposits for new rental, or we can pay owed rent to prevent eviction. And it's important that we can do both because each case is unique and has has its own unique needs. So some households are best served by getting some rent assistance so they can stay where they are, and some households are best served by moving to a new rental where, you know, that that they can afford and that's within their budget.

But they can all benefit from our case management services. We can provide financial counseling and housing navigation and try to, you know, set them on the road to long term stability. It's our goal. So BR three t so once we've locked you know, the pandemic funding has gone down, so we're we're building up our funding sources. And we've been good at getting the state grants.

We have a tenant based rental assistance grant from the state, and we have a CSBG grant from the state. And but both of those are lacking in case management funds. Great for the direct relief, but we are definitely looking for case management funds. We we currently have one case manager, Kylie, trying to manage all of our various programs, and we really do need two. In fact, we don't even have the funding fully to pay her right now.

So we're we're still building up the funding for case management, but we're doing pretty good on the direct relief side. And we still have lots of grants still, you know, in the application process waiting to hear back on those. So by funding this gap of our face management, HSAB is ensuring that the families receiving assistance with the state funds also receive the guidance they need to reach self sufficiency. You can think of it this way. The state gives us the fuel, which is the direct aid, but the HSAB grant's gonna give us the driver, the case manager.

So without both, we we can't get to the our neighbors to the destination of long term stability.

So just to kind of talk more about case management as that's that's my bread and butter. That's what I do on a day to day basis. With this program, to become stably housed, clients often need a lot of case management and guidance and advocacy in order to meet their individual needs. So we do offer targeted financial counseling, basically offering a one on one plan with that household to meet their specific needs. Each household is different, their needs are different, what their spending habits, what resources they may need changes to be able to offer those specific clients the specific things that they need and have a conversation with them, meet them where they're at.

We do also offer professional housing navigation. So this housing stability services program has been around for since about 2020 or so. So being able to have those those relationships with landlords, with other organizations in this town to offer professional housing navigation is very needed for clients. We also offer assistance obtaining income, applying for benefits, and try and get clients connected to legal resources if that's a need for them so that they're really aware of their rights, whether that be rights around late fees, rights around the eviction process, and what have you. So even though I can't offer legal aid and train for that, we can try and get clients connected to what they're in need of.

We do have many partnership agencies. One in particular that I do want to highlight is Southside Community Center. We currently have a strong partnership with them and a collaboration program. So, specifically, we work with them and their transitional housing clients. So Southside provides a transitional housing.

We provide the direct relief in the form of security deposits, utility deposits, application fees when they find permanent housing. We also provide the case managements to help them the housing navigation, the financial counseling to get them ready for that permanent housing. The other organizations mentioned on here, breaking bread outreach, quite a few, city of San Marcos programs, mental health courts, and community action of Central Texas are primary partners and referral agencies. So we do take referral referrals from these clients of their cases who are in need of housing stability services as well. And lastly, I do want to talk a bit about the impact of the RTT's housing stability services.

In 2025, we were able to serve 449 households. We prevented 59 evictions. We helped 202 households obtain stable housing, whether that was security deposits, utility deposits, application fees, what have you. Couple cases that I do wanna talk about the HSAB funding from 2025. This most recent application helps with where we had a household reach out to us.

We got a referral from a partner agency that morning. We were able to work with the clients and actually managed to get their security deposit paid by that afternoon. Really quick turnaround because that was what was needed, given that they were in a crisis. They had lost a household member and a source of income and found out that the housing that they were in, they didn't have a legal lease. They didn't have the legal right to be there.

So they had found a to live and transition to that was within their budget. They just needed that financial piece, that direct assistance to get them moved in. And once they were moved in and out of crisis mode, we were able to provide financial counseling and have conversations with them about what lifestyle changes they would need to make and help them through that process of, okay, now that we're out of a crisis, what are the things that we need to do, that you only need to do? What resources do you need to be connected to to make sure you can hold on to this housing and keep it and maintain it? Another case that we had is one that I've known for admittedly a while.

She was around when I first got hired at BR3T. She had been going from a couple different programs in town and was kind of chronically homeless. And most recently, she was in the Southside NBR3T collaboration program. And this time, we were able to help her hold and maintain a stable job, stable source of income. We were able to connect her with resources.

And very luckily, she came up on San Marcos Housing Authority's list. So we were able to help her with the pretty complicated paperwork and transition into public housing. We Southside, through that partnership, was able to help with the literal moving costs, getting a moving truck, getting her her furniture, and what have you, while we paid the security deposit and utility deposits, and the client was able to pay her own prorated rents for move in. So that was a case that I'm also pretty proud of. And one more that I do wanna talk about is one that we've had rather recently that we helped move in.

This was an older adult. She was on a fixed income and was having a bunch of medical issues, she had become disabled. And so the housing that she was at was unaffordable for her with these medical issues that she was having. And she ended up transitioning first into the transitional housing program that we have with Southside. Then, while she was in that program, we helped connect her with resources, we helped find and direct her towards a housing option that was more affordable for her, And then we were able to pay her her deposits to get her moved in.

And Southside covered the moving stuff again. So it'll help with the furniture and the moving. So I'm really glad of the work that we get to do in these lives that we get to help out and the ways in which we can help them transition from being homeless, whether chronically or just that one time weird little life event that happens that can really knock people off the path and help them get back into permanent stable housing. So we do really appreciate y'all's time here today. What questions can we answer for y'all?

We're all able to help everyone that you know, I'm sure you got a link for it. You know? But you guys like, what's the percentage rate? We'll say, like, positive or just, like, negative of you guys successfully helping someone and someone, like, maybe, like, it it didn't work out. Mhmm.

That was probably not a number we had. When we open our applications, no matter what we put on there, this is only if

you have a a fiction,

you know, case in the court system. Everybody just applies, and now we

can't help them all. We do still get applications from outside of city San Marcos City admits that we can't assist with, unfortunately. And I do know that we're working on tracking better, like, long term numbers. This is something we're It's it's

yeah. It's a little frustrating. During the pandemic, we had funds. It was like, how fast can we spend them? And that was good. We really help people. Now we have fewer funds, and we're being much more wanna make sure we're, you know, being the best we we can with these funds and being careful not to only fund the people who relate who need it.

So it is so the ED and the and you're the case manager, and so it's just the two of you on staff?

We have some remote workers. When we need, we can call them in to work.

So looking at y'all's budget from 2020 so so this current year, looks like it says, like, in other expenses, there's office rent and and other overhead, and that's at it says insurance, ED salary, audit accounting, and that's at 20,000. And then for 2027 proposed budget, it looks like it says office rent is 96,000. So my question is, yeah, like, Well, that's Is y'all's rent going from 20,000 to 96,000 next year?

Okay. Well, I don't have that pulled up. Is is that first for all all the overhead, not just the rent? There's no way rent is not easy. We're not paying that.

And Bring up their application. Would that help? Oh, yeah.

Is it all it's all in the application. Okay.

I think yeah.

And then yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay. So that's all the other overhead. So that would be, right, all the regular overhead, you know, admin salaries.

Well, you so there's in 2027, you have case manager salaries, but at $1.40 a 140,000. For this year, it's at a 100,000. Right. So the so, yeah, that was my other question.

Well, we wanna hire a second we need to hire a second case manager. So for this year, it's, like, one and a half in there because we haven't hired that person yet. We're we're hoping to. And then we wanna have two and it's actually and then plus that also includes our remote workers who do some case work for us. So it's, like, two in a partial for 2027.

And then so, here, I'll be scroll up a little bit to the 2026 budget. So right there, it says other expenses, office rent, another overhead for, I guess, 26. It's this one here.

So why is it going up?

From 20,000 to 96,000.

I'll tell you why it's not why it's going up so much is I'm not taking a salary this year for so far because we just don't have the funds. So I'm hoping to get funds so we can actually pay an executive director. But right now, the executive director is volunteer.

But the rent

so other open

It's it's the other overhead. I guess it's misleading to call out the rent because rent's just overhead.

And so the case manager's salary at $1.40 for next year, That's that's a 140,000 for It's like two case manager. 2 and

a quarter. Is that what it is? I forget what I put in there for the remote workers.

Well, no. This I don't know if this is pertinent, but, you know, for full time people, this grant can only pay percent.

Right. Right. Know the word

price wise, but here's the the HSAB budget. That's all.

Right. Yeah. My question yeah. We're just from the rent, it looked like the rent was going up from 20 or, like, the rent overhead was going up from 20,000 to 96,000.

Yes. That looks like It is. Because it's it's executive director salary in there. And it did

because Mhmm.

Because like I said, we're

definitely, okay, with the ARPA grant, like, she didn't take a salary. Like, where it'd be, like, 3,000.

I never charged that grant either.

Here. Yeah.

So This the Yeah. COVID grants, the executive director salary was in there, but not right now. So we we need that in case, you know, in case I need to be replaced, no one else is gonna work for free.

Sorry for being invert. No.

I mean, yeah, that what those are my questions.

Did that answer it?

Yes. I guess so. Yeah. So

Yeah. I think the case manager for 2027, that's, like, two and a third salaries.

That's be two and a third because my my salary is just under 60,000, I do believe

Mhmm.

For the entire year when I do my taxes. So that would be two in a portion.

Pat, are you good with

me? Yeah.

Okay. For the short term payments to hotels and motels, I was wondering if you knew, like, about how many, like, nights you guys were, like, able to provide for people or, like, what the average stay was per person if you have that information as well. But more so just kind of, like, how how much of that service specifically are y'all able to provide, and do y'all feel like y'all are meeting that need in the community or that, like, there could be more for that specific

This this pot of money is specifically or mostly $10,000 of it is for we've saved for when the police, the HOT team, the homeless outreach team, when neighborhood enhancement, they often a lot like, all of a sudden have somebody that they need to put in a hotel, and they don't have funds for that. So I put that in there, and we actually haven't spent any yet this year. Right. But it would allow for, like, an average of, like, three to five nights on those. Like, if it's on a Friday, you know, they need to get to the next week so they can get more assistance to get them into wherever they need to go next.

We had a couple ones that we thought we're gonna they needed it, but they worked something else out. So and then there's a little bit more if we were to get an emergency person, there I mean, there there's definitely a need for hotel stays. They just eat up a lot of money. With the pandemic funds, yeah, we had we had at one point, we had three hotels full of people. It was great. And we were on-site. We could do the case management right there. That would be the dream. Least get one more hotel going because yeah. There's definitely a need for that. Like, we've got an emergency, you know, whatever. It could be, you know, pregnant woman about the a homeless pregnant woman about to give birth or something. I mean, you know, there would or an elderly person. Yeah.

I will say probably at least once or twice a week at minimum. I get a couple calls still to us just on our office line who are seeking temporary shelter or seeking motel vouchers. It is still pretty regularly just because we've done it in the past, And people have known us for it, that they'll reach out for short term hotel stay or motel stays. But because this particular funding is for that those people in that particular program, I can't offer it to them with our current funding as it is.

It highlights that when you get home in this area. Yeah. That

would be the dream.

Any other questions? Anybody?

How many other cases do you currently like, I mean, I I only get I know you can't probably answer that specifically, but I can't,

Like, currently, do I have on my caseload right this moment?

Yeah. Like like because I know you said you're

So I have I have two cases currently for our South Side B R 3 T transitional program, though I will say that program is wrapping up. So we've already moved out quite a few people. This cohort is coming to an end within the next two weeks, so that's why I only have two right now. That program has a max of 10 households in its per cohort. As for the housing stability services program, that one I have a much murkier estimate for you.

I have maybe about last I checked, 50 open cases. However, only a handful of those are in active case management right now. And then as for our TBRA grants, I currently have a 187 active applications. She has too much to do.

I know.

That that is

that is is the thing.

Hey, guys. Last call. Okay. I'm gonna hit. Thank you. That's a good one. Perfect. Not all of the issues.

Okay. I'm no longer sure. Alright.

We'll try to go on into next, and that is Bobcat pride. And I can see Kennedy. I'm gonna make you a so you should see something pop up on your screen. Transition a little bit. Thank you so much for coming to. No.

Thank you. Yep.

So next up, are y'all ready for the next program? Okay. Bobcat Prime, the Jeremy O. Torres emergency stabilization fund, and here we have the operations director for the program, Kennedy Stonehawk. And, Kennedy, you're welcome to try to share your screen or whatever you need to do.

Awesome. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. I'm Kennedy Stonehawk, and I'm operations director for BPSF. And this is my first time seeing y'all's conference table, and it is gorgeous, by the way. Sorry. I just a little stunned. I've never seen it. It's really beautiful. Okay. I will get into the business now. Let me

find presentation.

I think

I have to throw it out there. Citi got it for free. Somebody made it for the Citi. We should let the people know that. We didn't pay. Well oh, what a lovely gift.

I'm saying it's too nice now. Don't

say No. It's yeah.

It could take it away. Okay. Can y'all see my slides as a full screen slide?

Yes.

Okay. Awesome. Alright. So let me start on the first slide by just introducing who we are. So Bobcat Bride Scholarship Fund, aka BPSF, was established in 2010, and our whole aim from that point forward has been

Kennedy, can you give us a minute? I don't know if you can

hear me.

Yeah. I can hear you. Yeah.

Okay. Our technology keeps crashing. I think it's back. Don't know. It's Oh, I'm sorry.

So all of a sudden, they couldn't hear you or see you. Okay.

Uh-oh.

Now we're trying to get we're trying to get our camera back up so the board members can be seen.

Okay. You just let me know.

I'm so sorry to speak. Let's try again.

It's helpful because when I first clicked the link, it was taking me to this weird room, and I panicked. So it's nice to know that it's a tech glitch and not

It's not just you. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. We're waiting for someone.

She's a bit.

I see.

There we Okay. Kennedy, go ahead and I think you'll all need to share your screen again.

Okay. Will do. Alright. Can you see my screen?

We're good to go.

Awesome. Thank you. Okay. So as I was saying, we were established in 2010. And since that time, we have had the sole focus of providing economic support for San Marcos' LGBTQIA plus community members.

We do that through three programs, the Jeremy Ottore's Emergency Stabilization Fund, which is what I'm here to talk about in more depth this evening. We also provide academic scholarships, and we also provide paid internships. We are an all volunteer board. We currently have seven directors on board. And combined, we have over a hundred years of professional experience in nonprofit leadership, business and finance, social work, psychology, creative services, and post secondary education.

So our emergency stabilization fund program is led by a program director who is this, as I said, volunteer as we all are. She's a social worker, and that skill allows her to provide applicants resources and ongoing support even though we have a very brief relationship with applicants and stabilization fund recipients. We try to make the exchange as meaningful as possible and provide them with access to other resources that exist within San Marcos or that are just out in the world, specifically with the aim of supporting sexual minorities. So our board members this year have volunteered over over the last two years have volunteered more than four thousand hours to BPSF. And we really have a strong commitment and a track record of being extremely good financial stewards, ensuring that at least 90% of all of our donations and funding go directly to the clients and the programming that we provide.

My slide won't see. There we go. So as I mentioned, the program I'm gonna talk to you about this evening is our Jeremy Ottodes emergency stabilization fund. We provide stipends of up to $400 based on need. The stipends are completely intended to cover those unexpected financial emergencies, like rents, medical or mental health bills, car repairs right now, fuel to get to work.

And the reason why this is the aim is that it's those types of costs that can often set someone who's in a precarious financial position, which most of our the people who we support tend to be in a more precarious financial position. It's those types of couple $100 here expenses that can really throw someone from being just precarious to being unable to meet their monthly net. So the funds are intended to just be stopgap funding and ensure that people can stay as much on track as possible. So you the people that are qualified to receive the funding need to be 18 to 25 years of age, and they need to identify as a member of our community, the LGBTQIA plus community. We do serve San Marcos residents, and we include those that attend Texas State and ACC.

And we're the only organization currently in San Marcos that's serving this niche population with an economic justice mission. So just to give you a little overview of how Right. Yeah. I'm

sorry. I think that was too late. Sorry. Go ahead.

Oh, that's that's okay. So just to give you a little overview of what we've done over the last in this current fiscal year. Our fiscal year, just to provide some context, runs from March 1 to February 28. So we are in the beginning stages of our FY twenty seven. But in f y twenty six, the average income of our an emergency stabilization recipient was $887.50 a month, which is 66.7 percent below the federal poverty line.

And a third of our applicants actually reported a monthly income of zero. 78.7% of our emergency funds covered rent or housing costs with the next biggest kind of piece of reasoning that people needed funding was for medical costs or car repairs. 18 to 25 year olds are the the which is the qualifying age bracket, are the largest age demographic or fit into the largest age demographic of San Marcos residents. And we saw a 36.1% increase in the number of emergency awards that were given in San Marcos just between our f y twenty five and f y twenty six. And to kind of put that into perspective in this you know, we're here in May.

Our fiscal year started March 1. And just in this first couple of months, we've had 38 applicants, and we've already awarded 15 individuals in San Marcos. So we've already distributed $6,000 just in the first two months of this fiscal year. And then nationally, statistically, that demographic of 18 25 year olds who also identify as a sexual minority are more likely to experience financial hardship because one of those reasons is they're less likely to have family support or other resources to fall back on should they enter a precarious financial state. So, again, to put a finer point on how we are serving San Marcos specifically, we provided the we received the Human Services Advisory Board grant in FY twenty six.

And with those funds, we were able to provide 25 San Marcos residents with a a $400 stipend. And that was 25.5% of the total stipends that BPSF awarded in San Marcos. Over the last five years, 97.27% of our emergency funds have gone to San Marcos residents, and then I outlined how that's been broken out in that table that you can see below. And I included that same table in the grant application. Since fiscal year twenty twenty two, we've invested over a $107,000 in emergency stabilization funds, and the majority of of that money has gone back into the San Marcos community.

So our intention is to support young San Marcos young San Martians so they can thrive and be healthy and ideally productive citizens in the community. And when they are financially stable, they're also giving back to the the economy in San Marcos and able to contribute. I just have a couple quotes here from some things that our recipients have said about the services. I won't voice those over. I'll let you just read those.

And that concludes our presentation. So thank you.

K. Thank you. We still have about twelve minutes for question and answer for this one, so please take your time.

Yeah.

What can I tell you?

Any questions?

All clear? Okay. I think we have no questions.

Oh, really? I was I even looked up some extra data based on the last questions. I'm I'm ready. You are

ready. Thank you so much for presenting. We do have one board member who's not here, and so I think I'm gonna be asking all the presenters if you don't mind sending your presentation because our technology has been so wonky. So if you could email it to me, that'd great.

I will do that. Thank you all so much. Have a good evening.

K. Thank you. K. So next, we have great. Central Texas Food Bank, and they are online to make them into.

Okay. So all three people from the food bank, you should have gotten a message to become a presenter, and you should be able to now make yourself visible and turn on your. Thanks for being here so early. That has really helped recently.

Of course. Can you can you hear us? Can you hear me? I can.

Yeah. We can hear you and see you, but not your coworkers.

Okay. Wonderful. I'll be doing the presentation, and Beth and Alyssa, if you both want to turn on your cameras, I'm about to share my screen. So give me a quick second.

And, also, I didn't announce your names. So and I don't know your title. So if you would go ahead and, introduce yourselves, that would be great.

Sure. Hi, everyone. My name is Anurita Mitra, and I am the vice president of network programs and services for the Central Texas Food Bank.

And good evening. My name is Beth Corbett. I serve as our vice president of government affairs and advocacy and work closely with Annurita in our public sector partnerships.

And hello. My name is Alyssa Gooch. I am the government grants manager. I know I I joined you all for a previous meeting, so thanks so much for all of the information and guidance you all provided, throughout this application process. Good to see you all again.

Thank you. Feel free to start anything.

Perfect. Can you see my screen? Yes. Perfect. So just to give you guys a little bit of information on who we are, we are the Central Texas Food Bank, and we've been in the community since 1982.

Our mission is to increase food access in Central Texas by providing nutritious food, leading hunger and poverty advocacy efforts, and transforming lives through programs, education, and innovative solutions. We are the food bank of the community. We are the only food bank, feeding America food bank of the community, and we serve, over 450 community partners who work very closely with us to help distribute the food that we are able to source, store, process, and deliver to our, partner agencies and different, entities. Our footprint in terms of our region that we serve is, 21 counties. While we are headquartered out of Austin, Texas, our service area is 21 counties with Hays County being an area of utmost, interest to us because that is a community that is growing exponentially.

We are seeing the need grow, and we'll be talking a little bit more about the need in a little bit. But just to give you a snapshot of our facility, and you can see the picture there of our forklift. And so that's what a food bank is. A food bank think of us as a large scale distributor. We typically are the regional food bank of the region.

Right? We have a 135,000 square foot facility, and we have a kitchen that produces meals. We have real time inventory tracking. We have a fleet of vehicles. And all those resources go to make sure that food gets to communities where there is a need.

We are data informed. We believe in not just data guiding us, but our neighbors or our clients who we serve, informing the work we that we do. You can see just those statistics out there. Just just from 2023 to 2025, there's an increase of 13.9%, to 17.6%, food insecurity in Hays County. Specifically in San Marcos, 23% of our neighbors who reside in San Marcos are experiencing food insecurity, and that is actually higher than the rest of the county.

Year over year from 2024 to 2025, Central Texas Food Bank distributed more than 18% of the meal. So that was an increase of 18%. We understand and realize that a one it's not a one size fits all when it comes to nutrition access services. So we offer different programs and services that, again, are informed data informed as well as community informed to help meet the unique needs of our neighbors. So while we supply food to partner agencies, specifically in, San Marcos, we have Hays County Food Bank that is one of our, bright shining stars of food pantry there that, we are providing 90% of the food that they distribute out in the community.

In addition to that, we also conduct mobile pantries. Think of those as pop up shops. Right? So we, set up mobile distributions out in parking lots of different different locations. We also do home deliveries, so food is delivered to the doorsteps of residents just as a way to remove access barriers.

In addition to all of that, we are looking at serving vulnerable populations, especially folks that are living with chronic illnesses, the older adults, children, college students. These are just a few of the unique populations that we serve through the diverse programs that we do. And we focus not just on downstream immediate food access issues. We also look at benefits programs that we help people enroll in. Right?

So SNAP and other, federal prep public benefit programs we help families get signed up. So here is a quick snapshot of all the different programs and services that we offer. I'm not going to read through each of these. But, as you can see, the three blocks on the left, the children, the families, the older adults, they, of course, are, we are looking at providing food today. Right?

Food today through the different, programs that we offer. And the two blocks on the right are our food for tomorrow or our empowerment program. So you have health and wellness initiatives that we have where we, literally have a program where we partner with clinics, pharmacy on wheels shows up. The doctor gives a prescription, and we that patient can come into the pharmacy and shop for meals. So those are just couple of, programs, that I wanted to highlight as well as having that assistance to help people sign up for the benefits program in addition to workforce training and other assistance that we provide.

Looking at San Marcos and what we've, been able to do, you can see 1,500,000 meals in the year 2025 were distributed by Central Texas Food Bank, in San Marcos proper, and these were done through eight different sites. These are all different kinds of Okay. Entities and sites, that help us deliver the food. But we also distribute food that is accessible to San Marcos residents throughout his county. Right?

So we know that, hunger doesn't know county lines, doesn't know city lines. So San Marcos residents, actually, when we track our data, we see that they access food even outside of San Marcos, but throughout his, county, and that they go to other pantries that are located there. We have three mobile pantries, outside of San Marcos where our neighbors are accessing our services. At the Central Texas Food Bank, we believe food is medicine. In fact, we know for a fact that food is medicine and has therapeutic values, and it plays a huge role in improving community health.

So you can see a couple of statistics here. These are our evaluation of different programs, whether it's home delivery, whether it's, looking at healthier, outcomes for people. These are the kinds of wins that we see when we provide that fresh nutritious meals to our neighbors. We are, respectfully requesting through our grant application a $125,000 investment from San Marcos that will support food purchase across our nutrition access programs in San Marcos. So because of our collective purchasing capacity, we can make a dollar stretch.

And trust me, when I say we stretch those dollars, for a dollar, we are able to provide three meals to an individual. And so, with the investment of $125,000 from the city, we are hoping to provide 1,250,000 meals in during the grant period. That's about 200,000 neighbor encounters. And we just don't want to stop there. It's not just about, the number of meals we give out and the number of people that we are able to serve.

We are also looking at establishing a mobile pharmacy partnership in San Marcos. The program that I described earlier where we will physically take out our mobile pharmacy to a clinic and be able to serve residents of San Marcos in a facility based out of San Marcos. That's something we are hoping to do with these grand dollars. Also, want to establish at least one home delivery enrollment partnership. That means a community organization there is going to help us sign up residents to our home delivery program.

We are also looking at, starting a monthly mobile pantry site in San Marcos. And then last but not the least, host at least one San Marcos based Snapathon, which is an all day, event where our team shows up and signs up community members on the spot for SNAP, which, for us is such a great way of ensuring that our neighbors in need not only have the food today that they are in need of because of emergency, because of life that they are confronted with, but are also able to have some assistance so they are able to get those meals on their own. I am going to leave you with this quote from one of our neighbors, a distribution participant, who talks about a lot of tranquility, a lot of peace of mind because we know there is going to be something on our plate and much, much gratitude. We hear that day in and day out from the neighbors we serve. And, thank you all so much for giving us this opportunity to present to you on our program, on our agency, on what we are hoping to do for San Marcos residents.

And, Beth as well as Alyssa are here who will help me answer any questions that you have.

Great. Thank you very much. And we are right at ten minutes. So if you have ten minutes for question unanswered,

we have time. Anyone?

Yeah. I asked that. Hello. Can you can you all hear me? Yeah. Well, I think I I think that was a great, amazing presentation, actually. I know I know you guys said that you do, like, community health improvement and, you know, with the meals. You guys try to make sure it's, like, nutritious meals feeding the families. I know it doesn't really, like I know when someone's starving or hungry, like, know, a lot of times, you know, it doesn't matter. They just wanna, you know, they just wanna eat.

You know? So I think my question was, is there, like, a way of, like, you guys track, like, what kind of, like, like, nutrition like, amount of nutrition you guys have in your meals, or is that is that just, you know, something you guys just I wouldn't say just just say, but is that something you guys just add on, or is it, like like, a way that you guys actually, like, you know, track, like, what you guys are giving to the community?

We absolutely do, and that's such a great question. So we have a team of nutritionists who are on staff at the food bank, and we actually our, mission is to give out fresh produce. That is what where we are going traditionally with food banking. Communities are used to seeing a lot of canned items full of sodium. We actually, as a food bank, have moved away from that model.

Of course, there is donated food that we get, which provides, you know, the fun food, but, our strategic direction is to ensure that the food that we give out, it has high, nutrition density, density, and we track that on our end. We are able to show what percentage of food that was distributed was healthy and nutritious, and that, again, is, the team of nutritionists are always looking at our shopping list and making sure that the dollars that we are spending to purchase meals, we spend about $1,400,000 every month to purchase food, that those items are all high on nutrition density and that they are meeting those guidelines.

Yes. And I would add meals, physically prepared meals that we make in our commercial kitchen for, as an example, our recently launched in a medically tailored meal partnerships with a lot of health care sector partners, children's programming. We provide and you're right to overseas our summer food service program as an example, where we're sending out, you know, daily distribution for kids, at those meal sites. Nutrition team is obviously involved. Our kitchen is pretty unique in the Food Bank Network because it's a scratch kitchen, so everything we're making is healthy. It is nutritious. It is labeled. It shows the the content of what in it, you know,

and what what all of

the statistics are, and and we can accommodate any dietary restrictions as well. I hope that answered your question.

Alright. For sure. You know what? Yeah. Because I I know it's I know it's probably very hard to try to, you know, like you said, attract certain foods, especially, like, you know, a lot of people just wanna, you know, just need food to eat in general. You know? So do you guys work with, like, any this is an extra additional question. Do you guys, like, work with any, like, farm like, local farm markets or anything in the area? I don't I'm not too familiar with that that aspect of the San Marcos region.

We do. Well, we we prioritize sourcing food. So when we're talking about shifting from, you know, maybe donated that we might get from a retailer like an HEB or a Walmart or an individual donor, we also source a lot of food directly from Central Texas producers. So if there is a I can guarantee you. I don't have the list in front of me if there is a, you know, a farmer or a rancher or, you know, someone producing in the dairy space in Hays County. Our sourcing team is more than likely not directly connected to them and more than likely not. We are, purchasing from them as well.

Thank you.

So I wanna go back to the slide where you discussed that you wanna establish a mobile pharmacy partnership in San Marcos, etcetera, etcetera. Are those programs that that you want to use this funding to establish, or is that something you would establish if, say, you got less of the funding that you're requesting or or what?

So the funds that we are requesting will actually go towards purchasing the food for these programs. Those programs are just avenues for us to distribute the food that we are able to purchase through the dollars that we are requesting.

Okay. So so you will be establishing those regardless of okay.

We we hope so. Would welcome any we would welcome any insights from all of you in in terms of health care partners, that we can work with on that program in particular.

Thank you. Any other questions?

Yeah. I have my hand raised. Go.

Oh, I absolutely missed that. Sorry. Really doing great to see me. Oh, go ahead, Sheree.

Yeah. I just had one question. Any particular reason why we were provided the 2023 tax info and not 2024 or 2025?

Let me look at that. One sec.

Is that the September that you're talking about?

Yeah. That's correct.

Okay. I I think that's

because that is go ahead, Alyssa.

I was gonna say I think that that's what we have currently available, but we should soon have the newer one available and we can provide that to you all.

So the the 2025, I understand. But 2024, that's two years ago. The form we have is three years old.

Okay.

So you don't

have the form

from two years ago available?

Yeah. I believe we have that, and I can send that over. Carol, I'll email that over to you.

Go ahead. Yeah. Carol, can we get that email when when we get it, please? Sure. Okay. Thank you.

Anybody else for questions? Okay. Got that written down. Thank you all so much for being available to present and for giving us the information that you have. If you don't mind, if you could email me your presentation. I'm asking that of everybody in this meeting because we've had some tech difficulties, so that would be great. Alright. Thank you so much, and we'll go on to our last presenter. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Okay. Where would you like for me to So the speaker's right there, Lisa. That's pretty good. I have been in reminding our board members, and I'll tell them too. If you speak too quietly, it thinks your background noise, and it cuts you off entirely. Like, nobody will hear. So Let's see. Good. 348. I think we're good. Okay. So we have with us in person last program of the evening, Salvation Army. Lisa Cruz, the service center manager, is here to talk about their emergency assistance program. And Okay. Lisa, feel free to start. Okay.

I don't have a PowerPoint, so I did prepare something. So I'm gonna go ahead and do my presentation.

And you are not doubling on who does that.

Okay. Okay. Good. So good evening. My name is Lisa Cruz, and I'm the manager of the Salvation Army San Marcos. Our mission is to serve others without discrimination. We serve the families of San Marcos and Hays County every single day. I know we are the last presentation of the night, so I will be direct. The Salvation Army needs your support because our community is in crisis. We have requested 25,000 from CDBG grant and 50,000 from for the HSAB grant.

Our request directly aligns, with objectives. The benefit is for low to moderate income persons. All of these funds will serve low and moderate income households. The Salvation Army San Marcos meets urgent community needs by providing immediate relief for emergencies like utility disconnections that pose a serious threat to the health and welfare of our residents. The urgent need, we are seeing over 300 clients every month asking for emergency help.

Most of these calls and walk ins are for utility assistance, but the needs go much deeper. Families are calling for help with IDs and birth certificates, crucial for employment, housing, and even enrolling children in schools. Prescription assistance for those recently discharged from the hospital or that do not have the means to pay for their prescriptions. We offer a one time a year prescription assistance. Many individuals that we serve are homeless or just out of incarceration that may have a medical condition arise, that they need help, prescription help.

Salvation Army policy though is that it cannot be controlled or narcotic, but for antibiotics, fungal creams, diabetic medications, cholesterol, and so many others that we see. Basic survival food, clothing, and hygiene, and emergency shelter. We assist people to get back into a stable environment and move forward and get through crisis. The majority of our funds go toward utility assistance because the cost per household is higher than that of prescription or ID assistance. We currently limit this to $2.50 per household once a year, focusing on the core bill to keep the lights on and the water running.

We don't just ask for funds, we manage them effectively. Last year, we participated in the city of San Marcos utility RFP grant. We helped to distribute over $50,000 in aid, but the need was so great that we ran out of funds by February. In the past year alone, we have helped over a thousand families in Hays County with emergency assistance. We anticipate this number will only grow and is growing as our community faces a challenging and ever changing economic environment.

What sets The Salvation Army apart is immediacy. When a client faces a same day utility disconnection, they can walk into our office, fill out an intake form, provide the necessary documentation, and receive help that day. We work directly with utility companies to stop disconnections and restore services instantly. We also have each client that receives assistance fill out a budget form, so they can see where their money is going and how they might be able to cut costs and discuss what changes they might be able to make financially. For ID assistance, have created a partnership with DPS to ensure that clients have what they need before we step foot in their office.

This has helped speed the process and ensure more clients obtain their IDs successfully. Emergency stays. We've recently opened emergency motel stays for non chronic homeless situations. Just recently, we helped a homeless individual that had just been released from the hospital that had a catheter with a three night motel stay. We also offered a one night shelter for someone working with the city so they could transport the individual to a location for more social services the next day.

Emergency transportation assistance. This is a one time assistance to get a homeless person off the streets and back home to a loved one, shelter, or for a person that may have a place of employment. This is only a one time in a lifetime service. We call the location that the client is planning on going to and confirm that they do have a place to stay or that they do have employment because we do not want to just put them on the streets in another town and in the same situation. Emergency food, clothing, and steel toe shoes.

The Salvation Army San Marcos is partnered with the Hays County Food Bank, and we have a weekly food pantry, and we give out daily snack packs to the homeless. We have a free clothing closet and provide clothing to people for interviews and people who have to attend court. These grant funds will help people that need still toe shoes or non slip shoes to start employment. This is a great service, and we continue to provide clothing and shoes so that a person can have a successful first day on the job so that they can get into housing, pay their utility bills, and move ahead. Working for The Salvation Army, I have seen many sad stories turn into success stories.

I have seen people who have been homeless and have nothing come to our office, receive clothing, food, water, hygiene, and then we help them obtain their birth certificate and ID. They have been able to get into housing, apply for benefits, be employed, and then we don't see them anymore. And then they come back, and they say thank you. To know that they are okay and in a better situation from the first day they came in is why I am asking for both these grant funds on behalf of The Salvation Army. There is a great need in this community for all of the emergency program services that the Salvation Army provides.

Many of our neighbors are trying hard to find jobs and using workforce solution and platforms like Indeed, but without a valid ID or a birth certificate, they can't get past the first interview. The Salvation Army emergency assistant programs for utilities, prescriptions, transportation, ID replacement, shelter, clothing, all help maintain employment, access healthcare, and contribute to improved self sufficiency. We are emergency based and immediate. People in San Marcos cannot wait weeks to keep their utilities on. We have asked for 25,000 from the CDBG grant and 50,000 for HSAB grant from the Human Services Advisory Board to ensure to continue help people in need here in San Marcos.

Please allow us to continue serving this community. We will do the most good with the funding that the city of San Marcos provides us. Thank you.

Thank you very much. So plenty of time for questions. We have about booking minutes. Any questions for Luis?

For the you said it was around a thousand families served. Did you have the number or percentage for how much of that was utility services? Or

About 85%. Yeah.

Oh, and, Linda, I see you have your hand up.

Hey. Yes. I have a quick question. You mentioned about providing people with clothing for interviews or something like that. Where do you get your clothing? Is it donations or

So we do have partnership with Walmart, and so they provide us with items that people return or may throw away. And instead of giving throwing it in the dumpster, we'll do a pickup every once in a while. And so we do give those clothing that clothing away. We do have private donors as well that will come and drop off clothing. So we keep, stock for, men and women homeless.

We also have a table in our lobby, that people that are getting assistance can go through. And then we put a table outside once a week when we have our food pantry. And then we also donate it to different organizations like Mental Health Court, but we also purchase items if somebody has an immediate need for going to court the next day and we don't have those sizes or they need shoes for employment, we will go purchase those shoes for them.

Okay. Thank you.

What other questions?

I'm sorry. I don't know if you may have went over it. You might just slip my ear. Do you guys have a physical location?

Yes. 1346 Thorpe Lane. We're near the Big H E B between Ocarina and Hot Pants.

And with your ID assistance and stuff like that, I know, you know, that can get kind of complicated depending on, like, what somebody needs and everything. Are y'all able to assist, like, kind of the whole process? Like, if I don't have my birth certificate or something like that, can y'all help me kind of, like, navigate the process of getting that and getting all those documents squared away?

Yes. So it just depends on the situation and where the birth certificate is from. Salvation Army will provide the financial assistance for it. And then we meet with the client, find out what they have, what they need, and help them with the application for a different if it's out of state, you know, but ultimately it's to help them get a Texas ID, two proofs of residency. And if they don't have a place to get mail, they can get mail at our office. So that way they can start getting their documents in. And I'm one of the main people that that does it, so I kinda know. I mean, when people have nothing, we have to go roundabout ways to get them, you know, going.

For the transportation assistance, it says, you know, taking people if they need to go to a shelter or rehab or, I guess, just, like, to their home. So a wide variety of places. Just curious, like, the people maybe that are doing the transporting, like, it's to a rehab center or something more serious like that. Is there any sort of, like, trauma informed care that they like, training that they go through, or are they trained in, like, mental health first aid? Just curious, like, in in those types of situations.

So with transportation, it's a one time Greyhound transportation ticket. So we have had mental health department come. We have had the HOT team help transport. We do have a couple of shelters that will come pick up the client and take them to the actual shelter. So it just depends on the situation. And it could be a person, and then we'll call the shelter, and we'll make sure that they have an opening. Because for instance, in Salvation Army in Austin, they have no openings. I mean, they say month, two months, they'll be on the streets. That's not a very long, you know, distance wise. But San Antonio, if they're there by 3PM, then they can get in.

And San Antonio will actually give them a place to work in their the stores. We don't have a store here, but they have stores in San Antonio. And then Haven for Hope also will call them, and we'll make sure. There's some drug rehabilitation places. There's a Salvation Army in Abilene, and just different locations. There's other churches in Austin as well. So we just we call and make sure that they have a place to go to. And then depending on the situation, if we need to get a mental health officer to come, then we'll do that or we but we don't transport ourselves. Yes. Thank you.

Alright. Well, thanks, Alwyn.

Well, thank you all for your time. And

will you please email me your presentation? Yes.

Alrighty. Y'all have a good day. Thank you. Thank you. Okay.

Now we're in the discussion portion of the meeting, but we can hold discussion among board members on programs, agencies, and applications for the purpose of clarification, comparison, evaluation, and assessment. Would anyone like to discuss?

And just to be clear with hopefully, it's clear on the on the agenda. You can talk about what we've heard here tonight or other questions you have about the applications or review meeting so far. It's supposed to be just kind of an opportunity for y'all to talk clear things if you need it.

Okay. Yeah. Anybody else going, or could I go ahead and go?

Go ahead. Go ahead.

So that that presentation from the Central Texas Food Bank did not sit well with me at all. I'm comparing their presentation with the Hays County Food Bank, which is our main food bank here in Hays County. I didn't buy the 1,500,000 meals that they gave in San Marcos last or either last year or what they're planning to do. And also saying that, you know, basically, they were saying that they're gonna do 550 visits per day in San Marcos. And when you compare Saint Hays County Food Bank with the numbers just aren't adding up.

Because Hays County Food Bank told us that about 16% of San Marcos residents are food insecure. And this other organization is saying they're gonna do 500 visits per day. Also, one of the reasons why I harp on the tax documents all the time is if you give me something from 2023, I don't know if you're getting audited in 2024 and 2025. And I can't work with numbers from 2023. And that's why there's been at least three organizations already that I basically have to ask for guidance on, for the future, this being one of them.

So, also, the amount that they're requesting right off the bat, a 125,000, is, like, almost 40% more than what the Hays County Food Bank usually requests. And to me, I would think that a local organization like Hays County Food Bank would know better the needs for the same market citizens. So that's why that that organization, like I said, it to me, it seemed like they were just trying to find funding without doing their proper due diligence in San Marcos. And that's that's my 2¢ on that.

Well, it looks like this is the first time they've requested funding from us. I'm reading. And that does seem count I'm I'm kinda with you. It seems like it is doubled. We've got the Hays County Food Bank and the Central Texas Food Bank.

Hays County applying this year as well?

Yes. Yes.

Yeah. They requested 88,000, and Central Texas Food Bank requested a 125,000. And if we gave if we gave Hays County Food Bank last year 88,000, I think it was let me check real quick. 80,000. We gave Hays County Food Bank 80,000. It would be dip basically double dipping into the funding that we have for the same situation.

Yeah. I almost hope that it'll be dealing with the same people. I'd like to not think that they that many people, including securities, that both would need their maximum amount to cover. Yeah.

And, I mean, I would honestly just be more comfortable if we're gonna spend $200,000 on food insecurity. In that way, I'd be more comfortable just giving the 200,000 to the Hays County Food Bank than anything if they're getting you know? That's just what makes sense in my brain logically the most sense. You know? I'm not a nonprofit expert by any means, but, you know, like, it just does make more sense to have those resources more localized, especially because, you know, it's close. It's 90% of, like, the funding that Hays County gets from Central Texas or, like, their food distribution, but, again, not all of it.

Have personally seen a lot of the work that the Pays County Food Bank does. And there's a lot more that they're doing than what we realized, like, with delivering meals to the home to those at home. The seniors that are down and can't we have a lot of seniors that are living with family members that really don't take care of them. And if it wasn't for the meals that they get served every day, a hot meal, You know, I don't know if some of those would be eaten. And,

also, you gotta remember that combined community action, they do the Meals on Wheels also.

Mhmm.

I'm I'm not above giving Central Texas Food Bank some funding, but not at the level they're requesting, especially now with the, the numbers that they provided of their, quote, unquote, impact in San Marcos.

With what San Marcos is doing, I would rather go to them, to someone brand new and someone that has such a big name. I recently saw a news article, and San Marcos serves double what they do for the area. Mhmm. You know? So I guess that's why they recently decided, oh, let's grab some of their money. You know, they've got so much. But I do know that San Marcos is out doing what they are doing, and they're taken care of this area.

Yeah. Definitely. And, Alyssa, you're more in tune with nonprofit type stuff, but I don't know if you guys saw on the on their nine ninety form, the tax form. From 2022 to 2023, their their cash on hand more than doubled from $4.04 and a half to $8,000,000. And that's why I'm, like, looking for 2024, what happened there too? Because it seems like they're just fundraising a ton, and we're not seeing the extra benefits, I guess, you would say.

I don't know.

Yeah. I mean, I I I don't know. I can't specifically speak to that. I I will say, I mean, they cover they're a very large organization. I mean, considering I mean, compared to anything that we're gonna see locally locally.

Right? I mean, I will say they provide a lot of service across the area and are, you know, always willing to kinda step up during a time of emergency. I did not realize that they supplied 90% of Hays County's food. I I was not aware of that large the number. My original concern was if we don't fund them at all, will that impact what Hays County is already receiving?

And if that doesn't seem to be the case, it seems like they're gonna, you know, tack on some additional things, right, like the mobile staff. And so, I mean, again, I'm kind of in line what my what I was going to say in general was I feel like some of these orgs, some of these bigger ones, some that are more, like, Austin based that are coming in and applying now this year are asking for really large amounts. Like, we saw that with TRALA last session, Texas real legal aid, fairground legal aid. And so I just feel like more and more because we're starting to see it across the nonprofit landscape. It San Marcos is a hot Hays County is just the hot spot now.

Right? And San Marcos is the highest need in the county hands down. And so I'm starting to see the games. Right? The nonprofit games, the funding games begin, And and there's just kind of a pattern to that, unfortunately.

And it's there's this funding is gonna go out. It's for this particular area. Let's do an event in this area, and it'll be very successful. And then we can say we're serving in that area so then when we go apply, we can, you know, say that we're doing this work already, but then it is kind of drawing funds away from the grassroots organizations that are here locally. So I you know?

And these large amount amounts that they're asking, like, years, these are my twenties just got. Woah. It it concerns me because they're asking two to three times more than what our local orgs are asking for. And, I mean, we just don't have the budget, you know, to a third, you know, a fourth. I mean, I don't know. It's just I just don't know how we're gonna shake it all out. So I don't know if that's helpful, but that's my learn.

Where was the 90% figure that you mentioned? Did they say that they they do 90% of that here?

They provide the Hays County Food Bank with 90% of their of their food that they distribute. I knew they partnered, but I didn't realize that CTFB, like, is that large of amount of the food that the our food bank gets.

So just to be clear, like, having looked at the receipts we get from the food bank, the Hays County Food Bank, they're buying the food from Central Texas Food Bank. So that's the receipts. They're turning 10 to get reimbursed with the HSA payment.

And they're not provided operating budget by Central Texas. They have their own entire They're

full separate. So they're purchase they're not providing it. They're selling it. It's not coming. Okay.

That was a little misleading from the Yeah.

I was

gonna say.

Thing. Remind them in. But

Did I like to?

They're not doing any of the goodness of their heart, it

looks like.

I thought they were, like, partners, and there was just, like, a transfer from, like, a distribution center to, like, a smaller regional center, but, like, if that's what's

So when we see the reimbursements, yes, from Hays County Food Bank is to purchase food from Central Texas Food Bank.

I mean, that still makes sense to me in terms of, like, they have the resources to, like, offer it cheaper, but that's it's not off it's not providing it. It's, you know, providing an opportunity to

So there's a budget. Yeah. It would matter.

Yeah.

Like, Hays County Food Bank would still be purchasing the 90%, probably, regardless Yeah. Of how much money we give Central Texas.

If and if we give them both, we might be giving Central Texas money to purchase food, then we're giving Hays County money to purchase food from them. You know? So we're just paying twice as much for the same meal at the end of the day.

And and that's why I was saying we're we're double dipping into the funding we're providing, which could go to other organizations too.

I mean, it was consideration given that we've got more people asking for money than we've got money to give out. Yeah. That definitely could be a consideration.

And I think the the fact that our funding went up two years ago probably has has got gotten out, so we have more funding funding to get. Yeah.

That's not gonna be the case.

Alright. And other topics?

I cried reading the BR 13 letters. Putting that out.

Do you cry?

I did. Yeah. I'm just reading some of these letters. And but I know I've mentioned this before. Like, I've been on the board for a while now, and I like, don't have that many questions because it's it's the same programs applying to the same I mean, organizations applying for the same programs.

And that's why I have been looking at the letters just be comparing from previous years. Some should change. You know, they're actually going out and asking people to write letters of support or state of support. And so for BRIDG, specifically, it really shows, you know, how how much they actually do help

Black. Here.

Alrighty. The

oh, which one is it? Hays Caldwell Women's Center. I like I like how they they started that new program where don't they have like a building where they can actually house families? I'm pretty sure that's only like two years old or so. And it shows how they're stretching the dollars that we give them as much as possible. So that's

I don't know.

That organization is really good.

It really is nice seeing, like, organizations that we've seen from couple cycles ago, like, what they've been dealing with the money that they were given. And, you know, like, the fuck that stabilization fund. No questions because they're always, you know, on track of what they're doing. All their money goes to providing emergency funds. So really straightforward.

Alright.

Do y'all feel good? We'll move on. Okay. Does any board member want to request an item for a future agenda? And what's gonna. Alrighty. We now have an opportunity for the press and public to ask questions related to items on this agenda. Is there anyone here with question?

So if I'm looking at this right, we don't have anybody except the Lord right now. Okay.

Perfect. Alright. Then we can go to adjournment. Thank you all for your participation. Dear, hear a motion to adjourn the meeting. Motion made. Do you have a second? Second. Thank you, Raymond. Shall we please call the roll for the vote?

I do think I'll ask the other ones if they actually do a roll call for it. It's alright. Guess the letter too. Too long. So

let's see.

Beyonce. Yeah. Raymond. Yes. Linda.

Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yeah.

That's good to know what this is about. So I'm

trying to It has been a big, like So it's it's I mean, it's here for, like, more sports than

Yeah. Eight twenty.