To mark their 100^th anniversary, the Girl Scouts
of Northern New Jersey challenged each Girl Scout troop to come up with a plan
to make a difference in their community. The girls of Troop 217 in Montville decided
to take on the issue of childhood hunger. Their goal was to collect 100 new
lunch boxes and fill them with healthy snacks. The girls wanted hungry children
to know that someone was thinking of them and for the children to have
something to keep as their own after visiting a food pantry. The troop wrote
letters to schools asking permission to leave donation boxes in their lobbies.
Then they wrote letters to food stores, and large chain stores such as Shop
Rite and Target asking for donations of food or healthy snacks and juice boxes.
They also wrote to large food manufacturers asking for food donations. Finally,
they used their cookie money to finish purchasing the remaining lunchboxes from
Toys R Us, which were sold to them at a discount to help support their lunchbox
drive. The troop contacted several local food pantries and soup kitchens to see
if they would like to receive the lunchboxes.

                In all,
the troop collected a total of 110 lunch boxes that they filled with snacks and
drinks. The girls delivered the lunch boxes to the Lincoln Park Food Pantry,
The Interfaith Food Pantry and Hana Mission in Paterson where they were very
much appreciated.