Silver Award Girl Scouts, Meghan & Brinn

Gorham Edible Main Street

Brinn and Meghan are cousins and, they each had different reasons for choosing their Silver Award project issue. Brinn loves gardening and, Meghan had volunteered at her middle school’s garden, harvesting the food for the local food pantry and school's backpack program, and she wanted to get involved more with her community. The focus of their project was to connect their town’s rapidly growing community with its’ agricultural roots, enhance the community’s interest in local food systems, and create more economic development by creating vegetable and herb planter boxes. They accomplished their goals by strategically placing 48 planter boxes either at or near downtown businesses, creating free-for-the-taking recipe cards with meal ideas for the produce that was growing in the planters, and providing educational resources and opportunities for the community on harvesting and growing the produce. The girls measured their impact on a bi-weekly basis by talking with business owners and by counting the number of recipe cards and produce that was left. Brinn and Meghan worked with the Cumberland County Soil & Water Conservation District, the Gorham Village Alliance, and local Girl Scouts to educate them on their project as well as to sustain it. The Gorham Village Alliance will recruit volunteers from the Rec Department to assist with planting the planter boxes in 2021. Brinn and Meghan worked with local community outlets to educate and inspire others about their project. They received many comments from community members regarding their enjoyment of harvesting the produce and learning how to plant vegetables and herbs. Meghan said that “The whole project was based on community and it had a BIG impact. I met so many different people working on this project and realized how important community is to everyone.”