Girl Scouts respond to food pantry shortage with 112 donated items

Published 9:26 am Friday, August 9, 2019

BUCHANAN — When Adelyn Clanton broke her wrist days before her Girl Scout troop planned to attend a waterpark, she was upset. Her friends could have fun in the water, but she could not.

Her friends, like Delanie Dutoi, did not like that prospect.

“If we went to the waterpark, she’d be sad,” Dutoi said. “That wouldn’t be fair. That’d be mean.”

So, on Wednesday, Troop 52019 decided to donate the $140 they had raised through Girl Scout cookie sales to help Redbud Area Ministries in Buchanan stock its food pantry shelves.

The ministry had sent out a Facebook post that morning stating that its pantry shelves were so bare, the nonprofit was in “crisis mode.”

“I’m not crying wolf,” said executive director Jan Nowak-Walters about the post.

She had walked through the pantry and was surprised to see a lot of exposed shelves rather than food placed atop of them. When Nowak-Walters saw how empty the shelves were on Wednesday, she said she sent a prayer to God. Then, the troops of 52019, her “superheroes,” answered.

“Christ has no hands and feet but ours, and they’re here doing that work,” she said. “It’s pretty special to see them responding in this way.”

Troop 52019 came at 10:30 a.m. the next day with about 112 food items that the pantry needed: canned mixed vegetables, canned peaches, cereal, chicken noodle soup, pasta packs, rice packs, pasta, macaroni and cheese and pasta sauce.

“These are my superheroes,” Nowak-Walters said. “This troop has been really special to us.”

Six troop members and a few troop parents spent the next 15 minutes moving the items from a truck and stacking them in the pantry.

“People need food to live, and if they don’t [have food], that would be so sad,” Dutoi said.

Nowak-Walters dried her eyes as she watched the troop refill her pantry. She said the girls were kind, caring and loving.

“These are future volunteers here as adults,” she said, watching the children. “These are the people that are going to go to work and go, ‘Let’s do a food drive for RAM because they’re already doing it.”

Redbud Area Ministries and Troop 52019 have worked together before, said co-leader Katie Dutoi-Filley. The troop had previously donated food to Redbud’s pantry and participated in its drives.

“It’s important to teach the girls to help out our community, help out the people in need,” said co-leader Jeni Rahrig.

Clanton, whose injury inspired the spontaneous donation, helped deliver food alongside her fellow Girl Scouts. Her left arm was wrapped in a cast and sling while her right arm was often holding donated food items.

She said she was upset when she found out she could not attend the waterpark, but she was glad the canceled event turned into an act of kindness.

“They got all the money and put it into the food because they didn’t want to go to the waterpark without me,” Clanton said. “It made me feel happy.”

Clanton added that her arm no longer hurts.

As troops and parents left Redbud Area Ministries with a series of high-fives from volunteers, other members who Nowak-Walters said likely saw Redbud’s Facebook post began to arrive with food, too.

At one point, a “Holy smokes!” rang out from Redbud as more food was shuttled in.