The smell of barbecued brisket wafted through the air in Denton Sunday as volunteers spent their Christmas Eve smoking 1,600 pounds of meat to prepare a hot Christmas Day lunch for first responders in nearly four dozen North Texas departments.
“They’ve got to eat. There are going to be a lot of restaurants that aren’t open, and we know they’re going to get at least one good hot meal tomorrow,” said Bill Milroy.
This is Bill Milroy’s first year volunteering with Feed-a-Hero. He and his Texas Rib Rangers team stepped in to help smoke more than 100 briskets for the fourth annual event.
“The world’s bad enough as it is. If we can make it a better place or help make it a better place than we’re in the right place,” said Milroy.
This year 80 volunteers plan to deliver a hot Christmas day lunch to first responders as far North as Denton County, as far east as Collin County and south into Fort Worth.
It all started four years ago when founder Jim Searles and his family took time out on Christmas Day to serve a local department.
“We knew from years past of me being a first responder that Christmas is just… it stinks, you know. We picked up one of those supermarket, you know, everything you need for Christmas dinner [packs], and we actually took four of them down to a Denton fire station,” said Jim Searles.
The next year the program grew with the help of donations and a few volunteers. Last year, they served 400, which is less than a third of the number they expect to serve this year.
“There’s literally just more and more folks who come on board and just when you think you’ve seen it all, you see just the good humanity coming out again,” said Searles. “It’s just a plate of brisket, but it’s such a selfless act. So for people to give up their Christmas to do this is amazing to me.”
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By 2020, Searles hopes to feed every first responder in the Metroplex.
Christmas morning, volunteers like Charity Goree, of Little Elm, were in Denton getting all of the lunches together. Goree helped load cars.
"We have two little ones, so it also shows them the real meaning of Christmas. It's giving to others," Goree said.
Lewis Bass and his daughter, Danielle, were volunteering for the first time. Bass said he was looking for something to do with his kids, and saw this opportunity on a ministry website.
"That seems, you know, I can drive a car and drop off a meal, seemed very simple. Pitched it to Dani, and she jumped on it, so we signed up and here we are," Bass said.
They made three stops with brisket lunches. The first was at Flower Mound Fire Department Station 5, where they had company at the door. A family of seven dropped off cookies and cards for the firefighters and paramedics.
"It's a good deal, because we kind of forgot that it was Christmas today, and didn't really have much food for dinner tonight. So all the stores are closed," said Capt. John Wright.
The Bass family plans to do this again next year.
"I just enjoyed it. The fact they are just thrilled to have a meal there. I oversimplified it in my head, like, ah, it's a meal. Big deal. I didn't think about they are here, things are closed all day. Just thanking them for just doing what they are doing," Lewis Bass said.
MORE: You can learn more about Feed-a-Hero here.
NBC 5's Julie Fine contributed to this report.
