The husband and wife team acknowledged their shock as they accepted the award before a crowd at Lake Forbes on Sunday evening.

"Thank you, I can't tell you what this means to us," Wendy said.

The council's General Manager Steve Loane, reading the award citation, said the Muffets' contribution to this community has spanned decades.

"For their entire married life, they have contributed to the community in a volunteer capacity while raising their two boys and running their businesses," he said.

"It would be impossible to estimate how many hours they have volunteered over the 40 years, as in just the last few years the number would be in the thousands."

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The Muffets have seen their vision for a food tourism event on the bank of the Lachlan River blossom to successful reality in Grazing Down the Lachlan.

But they don't do it alone.

"Every year 100 Forbes people step up and give of their time to help the Grazing committee, all of them volunteers, pop up that event for our town and I think that's a pretty good example of Forbes," Wendy said.

"I think I can safely say that Kim and I are just really proud to be part of this community and to serve it in some way.

"We serve in the presence of amazing committee members around us.

"Really we represent those people and they should be on the stage with us."

The Muffets were also recognised for their work with the Rugby President's Lunch, Forbes Arts Society's sculpture trail, the then Centacare Wilcannia-Forbes committee and Forbes dragon boat club, in many cases as founding members.