(12/13/24) BATON ROUGE, La. — This holiday season, Louisiana 4-H has been active around the state. Between events and opportunities like overnight camps and community projects, 4-H’ers have been busy working together and improving their communities.

In Ouachita Parish on Nov. 20, 4-H students unveiled a food pantry outside of the Children’s Coalition for Northeast Louisiana, which has a family garden. The idea was to give unsheltered people around downtown Monroe a place to have access to free, healthful foods that are difficult to find in the area.

“It's in a high poverty part of Monroe. There's a lot of homeless people around, a lot of people that just need a little extra help, and the garden was producing a little bit more than what they were using for their purposes,” said Cathy Agan, AgCenter agent and Ouachita Parish chair. “The Children’s Coalition wanted to find out a way to share that with the community so that extra produce from the garden can go in there.”

The pantry was put together by a handful of local 4-H’ers who wanted to help in the Monroe community. To create it, the base was built by an adult volunteer, and the frame was put together by the students and then painted with colorful designs of fruits and vegetables.

One of the 4-H’ers who helped was Lexi Harper, who was present at the ceremony at the Children’s Coalition. Harper said she was excited to help her community in both a meaningful and practical way.

“It feels really good because we're helping so many people here, and it's going to have such a big impact,” Harper said. “Just letting them have their daily nutritious needs is so important because food insecurity is just such a big problem in our area. So it feels really nice to have that opportunity.”

On the other side of the state in Acadia Parish, the AgCenter’s Southwest Region was hosting a different kind of community-building event. The 13 parishes that make up that region came together to have their annual Challenge Camp at the Acadian Baptist Center Nov. 19 and 20.

Lanette Hebert, 4-H coordinator for the Southwest Region, said events like these are important to build friendships and relationships between 4-H’ers.

“They have a great experience at the camp but also develop those life skills of learning how to communicate and work together,” Hebert said.

The students took part in many team-building activities, such as working as a group to spell out words with strings and one pen, as well as learning new skills like archery. Each group was also assigned an older 4-H’er who helped lead the children in their activities. Also, as a part of the camp, the kids were given service projects to work on in big groups over the course of the two days.

“We’re hoping engaging them in these types of fun experiences that are memorable to them will encourage them to retain their 4-H membership,” Hebert said.

4-H’er Lexi Harper speaks in front of the food pantry at the NELA Children’s Coalition in Monroe, Louisiana, in November. Photo by Anthony Bailey/LSU AgCenter

The 4-H’ers who helped build the Children Coalition’s food pantry were honored at the ribbon cutting ceremony in November. Photo by Anthony Bailey/LSU AgCenter

4-H’ers work together with strings and one pen to write words as a group at the Southwest Challenge Camp in Eunice, Louisiana. Photo by Anthony Bailey/LSU AgCenter

As a group, 4-H’ers try to place a ball on a hoop and strings into a cup at the Southwest Challenge Camp in Eunice, Louisiana. Photo by Anthony Bailey/LSU AgCenter

4-H’ers are taught how to shoot a bow and arrow at the Southwest Challenge Camp in Eunice, Louisiana, Photo by Anthony Bailey/LSU AgCenter