Local Girl Scout raises awareness of the needs of the Food Pantry at Lorton Community Action Center and created a bilingual cookbook and nutrition guide

Rachel Pehrsson, an Ambassador Girl Scout from Troop 960, held an event at the Lorton Community Action Center (LCAC) Food Pantry to kick off the “Dining on a Dime” cookbook that she created for her Gold Award Project.  She prepared dishes from the cookbook and provided samples to the clients at LCAC when they came to the food pantry.  Each family was offered a free cookbook that features recipes for the foods usually provided by the food pantry. 

The project targeted the growing problem of obesity and its prevalence among the impoverished in America.  An estimated 1/3 of United States adults are obese, and poverty and obesity are closely linked.  Rachel created the cookbook and nutrition guide to help the LCAC clients make healthier foods on a budget.  In addition to preparing the cookbook, Rachel spread the word on the needs of local food banks to other organizations and Girl Scouts. She ran a neighborhood food drive, taught younger scouts about nutrition and the needs of the Food Pantry, and helped other troops run food drives.  As a result, several troops and the South Run Swim Team ran food drives for LCAC. 

Rachel hopes her cookbook will help families make better food choices.   Consuming packaged foods that are usually high in calories and fat is one of the contributing factors that lead to obesity.  It is perceived that healthy foods like fruits and vegetables are more expensive than prepackaged alternatives, so  Rachel chose the recipes for the cookbook based on foods that preserve well (like canned or frozen) or are considered less expensive, taking care to make the recipes culturally diverse. She made the cookbook accessible to all LCAC clients by making it bilingual, in Spanish and English, so language would not be a barrier to a healthier life.

Two hundred fifty cookbooks were printed for distribution by LCAC thanks to the generous donations from Pohick Church.  The LCAC Food Pantry serves more than 200 families per week and they are constantly in need of donations, particularly in the summer months.  The Dining on a Dime Gold Award project helps educate members of at-risk populations on how to cheaply make healthy food and educates the community of the needs for the LCAC Food Pantry and the many other food banks.