Girl Scouts Annual Food Drive a Success

The Port Washington Association Girl Scouts held their annual food drive on December 10th to stock the local food pantries at St. Peter's of Alcantara and Our Lady of Fatima and the personal care pantry at the Lutheran Church of Our Savior. The Food Pantries and Personal Care Pantry support over 80 families in the Port Washington community.

The event was hosted by Senior Troop #424 and their Leaders Jessica Day Griffin and Donna Russo. Along with 10 other troops, the Girl Scouts set up tables outside of Stop & Shop and distributed orange shopping bags and a list of food pantry staples that were needed. The girls also asked for monetary donations which were used to buy personal care items such as paper towels, toilet paper, shampoo, toothpaste, diapers, and baby wipes. And the end of the food drive the Girl Scouts purchased Stop & Shop gift cards with any remaining money.

Port Washington Outreach Coordinator, Clare Masi, started the food pantry movement in 2012 with the idea of helping families in the Port Washington Community. "The orange bag was designed to inform our community that hunger exists. When you fill an orange bag you are directly helping families in our community. The donations the Girl Scouts collect will keep the pantries well supplied through the end of February.”

200 bags of food items were collected throughout the day and Clare decided to have the girls count the number of item that were donated. At the end of the day, Clare reported that the Girl Scouts collected 3,289 food items. $691 in monetary donations which were used to purchase $371 worth of baby supplies such as baby wipes, diapers, and baby lotions and $320 in Stop & Shop gift cards, which would be distributed to families who need items outside what is available at the pantry in instances of food allergies.

The Girl Scouts would like to thank Shop & Shop for allowing them to hold their annual food drive outside their store and to Clare Masi for her tremendous help, direction and guidance.