Members of the Brown County 4-H on Thursday afternoon completed the annual community service project of creating and delivering 50 turkey boxes that were donated to the Community Connections of Central Texas to aid families who are less fortunate this Christmas.

“Brown County 4-H has been doing this since I’ve gotten here, which was 14 years ago, and we try and help 50 families,” said Brown County 4-H Extension Agent Nick Gonzales. “Our youth are the ones that determine if they want to continue with this project and each year they keep stepping up and enjoy helping give 50 families a Christmas dinner that aren’t fortunate enough to have a lot of the opportunities that our kids do. These kids want to give back and that’s something we try to teach them because we are given so much and we need to give back. It’s not hard to teach that to these kids because it’s already instilled in them from their parents.”

There are approximately 200 kids participating in the Brown County 4-H program.

“We divide and conquer so each club sponsors a number of boxes until we get to the 50,” Gonzales said. “That ranges from our community clubs like Bangs, Brookesmith and the Cen-Tex 4-H club, and our project clubs like the rabbit club and sheep and goat club and our shooting sports club. They all sponsor a number of boxes and their clubs wrap them, bring them to the office, then we all load it up and bring them here.”

Brown County Farm Bureau again partnered with the Brown County 4-H to sponsor this year’s project.

“We have a food connection outreach and this is what we do with it. With Farm Bureau, we really want to teach America about agriculture and this is our way to help the community and people also learn where their food comes from,” said Monte Sanchez, President of Brown County Farm Bureau. “We really enjoy this, it’s something we look forward to each year and we’re always trying to grow our budget for it. The 4-H kids get a lot out of it, too.”

CCCT Family Facilitator Esmeralda Riojas said, “Our families from around the community are so grateful. I want to thank 4-H and Farm Bureau for providing this for our families. It’s immensely appreciated.”

Riojas helps find the families in need of the Christmas dinner, Gonzales said.