The Wilson County Extension office told commissioners on Jan. 17 that staff received regional recognition and ran multiple countywide education and outreach programs over the past months.

An Extension presenter said staff and volunteers distributed “150 bags across the county to senior citizens” during the holidays and highlighted two staff awards, calling the honors recognition of local service. The presenter also described recurring safety and parenting programs, noting regular car-seat classes run with the South Texas Pregnancy Center to teach proper child-seat installation.

Extension staff detailed efforts to boost local food access. The presenter described a producer-training workshop funded through an EPA-linked grant to connect local growers with school-district food-service directors, with the goal of moving more locally produced lettuce and carrots into school meals. Allison, an Extension volunteer, also reported that 4‑H clubs collected 573 items in a recent food drive to supply county food pantries.

Youth and volunteer programs were a focus: Extension staff said the county’s 4‑H kickoff drew about 300 attendees, Red Barn Days involved roughly 780 students, and a classroom hatching project produced 57 chicks. The office reported 22 certified master gardeners and a seed-library project, and said third certification classes are scheduled to begin in August.

Commissioners were also introduced to Dr. White of Prairie View A&M, who outlined an expansion of the university’s Family and Community Health cooperative extension services to include Wilson County. Dr. White described the unit’s work in nutrition, parenting, diabetes management and other life-skills workshops, and said the program uses pre- and post-testing to evaluate results.

Why it matters: Extension programming provides county-level education, volunteer capacity and food-system linkages that county officials and school districts rely on for youth development, agriculture support and public-health workshops. The Prairie View A&M expansion, officials said, will add institutional capacity for health and community education in Wilson County.

Next steps: Extension staff said outreach and training events will continue and the Prairie View A&M representative will coordinate locally; no formal approval or funding decision for the expansion was recorded in the meeting transcript.