Hidalgo County Judge’s Office Awarded “Best Practices” Award By Texas Association Of Counties

Photo above: Texas Association of Counties presenting Best Practices Award to Hidalgo County Judge’s Office.

EDINBURG – The Texas Association of Counties (TAC) recently awarded the Hidalgo County Judge’s Office with the prestigious “Best Practice” Award for the Cooking School for Emergencies events. The honor was announced by the TAC on August 15, 2022, and Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez and his staff were recognized at Tuesday’s meeting of Commissioners Court for their achievement. 

The award recognizes the Hidalgo County Judge’s Office for a series of Cooking School for Emergencies events that were held in June 2021. The live cooking sessions took place in each of the four precincts. In-person and livestreamed classes showed residents what to include in a home emergency kit and how to cook nutritious meals safely for up to three days without electricity.

Motivated by the prolonged power failure experienced during the deadly winter storm of February 2021, the flooding and outages wrought by Hurricane Hanna in July 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, Judge Cortez teamed up with commissioners, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and other local officials to create the Cooking School for Emergencies, a novel educational program to help residents better prepare for natural disasters.

“It is so important to be prepared for any type of emergency or disaster. These classes challenged our residents to think outside the box on how they must prepare and respond to any weather event they may encounter – freeze, flood, hurricane,” said Cortez. “I want to commend my staff, and thank all of our partners who made these events possible. Without your support and dedication our residents who would not have received this vital information.”

According to the TAC website, “Every other year, the Texas Association of Counties’ County Best Practices Awards Program recognizes noteworthy innovations and solutions that increase efficiency, improve operations or overcome obstacles brought about by, say, a pandemic. These solutions help Texas counties better serve their residents. The best of them also are models that other counties can shape to fit their own needs.”

View video of Cooking School for Emergencies event: https://youtu.be/a0lPHqSYm5c.