The Travis County Sheriff's Brown Santa program has seen a 45 percent increase in applications this year, which could be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation.
About 2,500 families are expected to be served by the program this holiday season.
"The need is astronomical this year. We saw a 45 percent increase in applications this year, which means more families, more children, which means more toys, which means more money," chair Louis Moncivais said, adding that higher need and fewer donations could be due to the pandemic and inflation. The Sengupta family is one group of many volunteers that showed up Saturday to wrap presents for Brown Santa. Upayan Sengupta's ten-year-old twins picked out toys to donate and wrapped presents too.
"We take a lot of time to figure out what we want to bring, also the kids go all out to try to find something nice other kids would like, and then come here and wrap, gives them an outlet for their energy," Upayan Sengupta said."At my school we learn how to be a leader," his son said.
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