At its March 7 meeting, San Marcos City Council discussed the distribution of $500,000 of the Human Service Grant Funding from the city’s general fund.
The distribution consists of money requests from each organization and non-profit and what the council thinks is best for each. The money will be distributed based on who the council thinks needs more funding.
One of the main topics of conversation was the Hays County Food Bank and how much they should be awarded. They requested $50,000 despite the recommended $30,000, and the council voted 7-0 for giving the food bank $40,000 in grant funding. Non-profit, Meals on Wheels, asked for $15,000, the recommended amount was $3,000, they voted 4-3 to give them $12,000.
Councilmember Alyssa Garza said that she believes the food bank has done a superb job as a non-profit and they have helped residents of San Marcos.
“I saw so many new people go to the Hays County Food Bank since COVID-19,” Garza said. “They have been doing an amazing job at what they do they deserve more than what they asked.”
Mayor Jane Hughson said she doesn’t mind giving some more than what they asked as long as it is necessary, but not for every single organization and non-profit.
“I don’t know how I feel about giving people more than what they ask for,” Hughson said. “We need to be careful.”
They went through each organization’s application and reviewed how much each would get to make any adjustments based on what the council thought would be best. Each organization did not get the exact requested amount.
The applications for this funding are open to all organizations looking for funding, but Hughson said that the description of what the money will be used for is very unclear from a lot of applicants.
“When it asks what the money will be used for, their description was what they do as a organization,” Hughson said. “But it doesn’t say exactly what the money will be used for, for future reference please answer the question correctly.”
The checks will be distributed throughout the upcoming weeks to each organization that received approval for the funding.
The San Marcos City Council meets virtually at 6:30 p.m. every first and third Tuesday of each month. For more information, visit the City Council website.