Girl Scouts Donate 'Birthday Bags' to Food Pantry

On Monday, Girl Scouts of America is celebrating 100 years of girl scouting. The Montville Township Girl Scouts Service Unit challenged its troops to develop and execute a service project to commemorate Girl Scouts' 100th year.

At in Pine Brook, first grade Daisy Troop 4559 (co-leaders Ro Laino and Lisa Tubbs) and second grade Brownie Troop 4233 (co-leaders Robin Furman and Kathleen Nagurka) joined together to complete their service project. Thus, the concept of the “birthday bag” was born!

It can be difficult for a first or second grader to truly understand the significance of Girl Scouts' 100th anniversary. But these girls definitely understand how exciting and important it is when they celebrate their own birthday. The troops discussed the topic of a birthday celebration and for many of the Girl Scouts, they realized that most types of celebrations involve cake. They imagined what it might be like to have to make the decision to skip baking a birthday cake because the ingredients might be too expensive for a family’s budget. The troops decided to collect items that are commonly present at a birthday party so that they could put together a “birthday in a bag” to donate to a local food pantry. 

The two troops compiled 35 “birthday bags” using donations received from the Hilldale school community. Each bag contains a box of cake mix, can of frosting, cupcake liners, vegetable oil, packaged paper plates, balloons, candles and party blowers. The girls included in the birthday bags a list of 99 thoughts for a birthday party (such as “My favorite part of a birthday party is getting to play with my friends.” and “My favorite game to play at a birthday party is dancing.”). The 100th thought about a birthday party is left blank to allow the birthday bag recipient to add their own favorite!

The 35 birthday bags are headed to Morris County’s Interfaith Food Pantry located in Morris Plains. Troop 4559 and Troop 4233 hope that the recipients enjoy the birthday bag items as they celebrate a time that is important to them and their family members-whether it be a birthday, a special anniversary, or just a random happy day.