By Shannon Hicks

Last November, the girls in Brownie Troop 335 participated in an annual rite of passage for every Girl Scout: The girls joined the over three million Girl Scouts across the country who participated in selling Girl Scout Cookies.

What sets this Newtown Brownie troop apart from many of its contemporaries is what the 11 middle school girls decided to do with some of their cookies. Beyond receiving an official Cookies Count badge (the age-appropriate recognition awarded to Brownies who participate in the Girl Scouts Cookie Sale), the Brownies are also working on a community service patch through a program called The Gift of Caring.

 “The Gift of Caring is a program where cookie donations are solicited from anyone the girls go to sell cookies to,” Brownie Troop 335 co-leader Liz Dorso explained this week. Customers choose how many boxes of cookies they would like to purchase, either in addition to cookies for their home consumption or simply to donate for the Girl Scouts program. Of the 647 boxes of cookies sold by Troop 335 this year, 35 boxes were donated to FAITH Food Pantry.

On Monday, January 24 the Brownies visited FAITH Food Pantry in Sandy Hook. There, Nancy Taylor accepted a donation of nearly three dozen boxes of Girl Scout Cookies from the Brownies.

The Brownie troop was welcomed into the pantry, which is situated in the meeting room of St Paul’s Church on Route 34 in Sandy Hook Center, by one of its co-chairmen for a program that explained the pantry’s purpose. The food pantry, whose acronym stands for Food Assistance Immediate Temporary Help, is run by a completely volunteer and non-profit group. FAITH’s purpose is to help provide Newtown residents with one week’s worth of groceries once a month.

Nancy Taylor sat the Brownies down among boxes of food that had been recently donated by townspeople. Before opening the floor to questions from the girls, she gave them an overview of what a food pantry is and how it works, how FAITH tries to coordinate its efforts with Newtown Social Services, and how a food pantry differs from a soup kitchen.

“We are open for people who need food on Tuesday mornings from 10 am to noon, and Thursday evenings from 6 to 7:30 pm,” Mrs Taylor told the Brownies. She explained that there are no requirements for people to visit the food pantry beyond being a Newtown resident. Clients sign in, and go through the pantry with a volunteer to receive everything from food staples to laundry supplies and toiletries.

Clients generally visit the pantry once a month, Mrs Taylor explained, “but the pantry is here, too, to help those who find themselves really stuck and may need to visit twice a month. We don’t want to turn anyone away.”

The food pantry works on an honor system; volunteers like to believe that if people stop in for food they are truly in need.

“We’re here for people who are making an effort to make ends meet, but just need that extra helping hand,” she said. Cans and bottles are stored carefully to avoid denting and breakage, and expiration dates are constantly being checked.

“We never give out what we wouldn’t want on our own shelves,” Mrs Taylor explained. “We want these people to have their dignity, their pride.”

As Mrs Taylor opened doors to reveal shelves filled with canned vegetables, soups, pasta and sauces, cereals and cookies, she told the girls, “Most of our food comes from Newtown.

“We live in a very, very generous town,” she continued. “People like to share. We’re very lucky. More than being able to help others, though, the best feeling comes from seeing things come to us from people like you.”

She also told the girls that while people visited the food pantry for their necessities, donations of sweets such as their cookies would make people very happy.

“Do you have any idea how happy these cookies are going to make people? We have families with children, and sometimes grown-ups, who have a sweet tooth. We love being able to offer them something special like this.”

The Girl Scouts Cookie Sale had its earliest beginnings in the kitchens and ovens of members, with the girls’ mothers serving as technical advisers. The sale of cookies as a way to finance troop and community activities began as early as 1917, shortly after the founding of Girl Scouting by Juliette Gordon Low.

The earliest mention of a cookie sale found to date was that of the Mistletoe Troop, which baked cookies and sold them in their high school cafeteria in Muskogee, Okla. as a service project. Ms Low started the cookie sale, in fact, as a way for Girl Scouts to be self-reliant and to fund their own activities. The sale remains as a way for participants to learn and practice important life skills including goal setting, teamwork, handling money responsibly and meeting new people. The Girl Scout Cookie Sale is one of the most successful fundraisers in the country.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Girl Scouts in different parts of the country continued to bake their own simple sugar cookies with their mothers. These cookies were packaged in wax paper bags, sealed with a sticker, and sold door-to-door for 25 to 35 cents per dozen. Today box prices range from $2.50 to $3.50 each, and there are eight varieties available.

Customers last fall had the choice of the traditional Trefoil (shortbread) cookies, along with newer varieties such as Caramel deLites, Reduced Fat Lemon Pastry Cremes, Crunchy Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Peanut Butter Patties (chocolate covered cookies with peanut butter made right in the bakery), Upside Downs (oatmeal cookies with vanilla frosting on the bottom), and the brand-new Animal Treasures (fudge-dipped shortbread cookies embossed with endangered animals).

And of course, there were still the ever-popular Thin Mints. The thin chocolate cookies with a minty chocolate covering account for one out of every four boxes of Girl Scout Cookies sold.

Kathy Hankins’ daughter Brittany is a member of Troop 335. While she isn’t one of the troop’s two leaders, Mrs Hankins helped the troop with its cookie distribution this year, including the donation to the food pantry this week.

“We wanted the girls to see a community service center that is in operation,” Mrs Hankins explained. “We wanted them to visit one that was in operation, but that wouldn’t be too overwhelming for a seven- or eight-year old girl.”

“The biggest reaction [from the girls] seemed to come when Mrs Taylor spoke of others who don’t have everything,” co-leader Liz Scalzo said Tuesday morning. “I don’t think our children realize how lucky they are, and I think they were really shocked when she talked about that.

“It was certainly eye-opening. But they did a wonderful job.”

Thanks to generous donations during the holiday season, FAITH Food Pantry is nearly fully stocked right now. However, donations are always welcomed and a call ahead is a good idea. For information on when and where to drop off food, contact Nancy Taylor (426-8507), Doris Bulmer (426-4254) or Lee Paulsen (426-5604).