Brownwood’s Good Samaritan Ministries celebrated their 17th anniversary on Thursday by throwing open their doors and giving the public a look behind the scenes of what they are doing for the community.

Good Samaritan Ministries works cooperatively with local churches to meet the basic spiritual and physical needs of families and individuals in Brown County.  Their updated facility, staff, and volunteers can help families through their food pantry, clothing room, help for health, disaster closet, and so much more.

Current programs offered to those in need include the following:

*Backpacks for Kids: No child should know what it is like to feel hunger, but the sad fact is that many do.  Breakfast and lunch as school help, but what happens on the weekend and when the pantry is bare at home?  Backpacks for Kids provide shelf-stable, kid friendly food every Friday through the school year for chronically hungry children.  Each backpack contains 5-7 pounds of food and it only takes $4.50 to provide a weekend’s worth of food for one child.

*The Deer Project: It is a unique program that gives local hunters a chance to participate in a sport they love and provide a source of lean protein to the plates of the hungry in Brown County.  Hunters who have left over tags can bring a deer to a participating processor and ask the processor to donate the meet to Good Samaritan.  There is no processing fee charged to the hunter.  Participating processors include M&M Deer Processing, Zephyr; Perk’s Deer Processing, Brownwood; Ted’s Deer Processing, Owens; and Santa Anna Wild Game Processing.

*Christmas Boxes: These are given in addition to the monthly stipend of food and include everything needed to make a traditional Christmas dinner.  Last year, Good Samaritan provided 926 families with ingredients for a Christmas meal.  They begin assembling boxes after Thanksgiving and will give them away December 1 through the 23.  $18 is all it takes to provide a Christmas box for one family.

For more information about any of these programs or how you can help in volunteering or with a donation, please call 325-643-2273 or visit Good Samaritan’s website