Troop 2096 earns "Food From the Heart Patch" at Mount Vernon Food Bank
Janaury 3, 2022
MOUNT VERNON—15 girls from Troop 2096 earned their “Food From the Heart” patch by building cardboard boxes and delivering “Birthday in a Bag” kits at the Mount Vernon Food Bank.
The multi-level troop is made up of Brownies, Juniors, Cadettes, and Senior Girl Scouts. They all had a role in making the cardboard boxes! As said by Troop Co-Leader Kirstin Heck, “The girls split into teams of three with a Cadette/Senior on each team to help guide them (being taller and better able to physically wrangle the boxes), and built all 40 boxes that needed to be put together.”
The “Birthday in a Bag” kits were made during October to celebrate and honor Girl Scouts Founder Juliette Gordon Low’s birthday. Each kit contained, “Cake mix and frosting, vegetable oil, candles, sprinkles, and a set of matching paper plates and napkins - [LG1] all packed into a birthday gift bag that could be reused. The goal was to include everything needed (minus eggs, which the food bank has on hand to distribute) in order to host a small birthday celebration. We had some great conversations with the girls about the difference between wants and needs, and how we might have neighbors who have to put their money towards the needs rather than the wants. Our kits can fill one of those wants, and help make someone's birthday special,” said Heck.
Girl Scout Dad, Nate Kane, has two daughters who are in Troop 2096, and is a Mount Vernon Food Bank volunteer. He explained how the food bank plays an active role in their community and gave the girls a tour!
“Nate was a wonderful host. He was able to impart a huge amount of information while having fun and making them laugh. They girls felt comfortable asking a lot of questions, and really dove into the hands-on project. They were quite surprised and pleased to see the stack of boxes ready to be filled, knowing that they'd made a difference not only for the clients who would take the food home, but also for the regular volunteers who would have spent a lot of time putting them together,” said Kirstin Heck.
In total, Troop 2096 donated 54 kits and boxes combined. Incredible work identifying a need in your community and working hard to solve it! We can’t wait to see what you accomplish in 2022!
