PRESS RELEASE



On Saturday, December 5, more than 3,000 Girl Scouts in Los Angeles County and parts of San Bernardino and Kern counties set up in front of participating Vons/Pavilions locations for Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles' Feed Your Neighbor Food Drive & Service Day. Local Girl Scouts, a familiar fixture in front of grocery stores, encouraged shoppers to help them reach their goal of donating 4,000 lbs of food to local foodbanks and pantries. By the end of the day, GSGLA had exceeded that goal, collecting 31,431 lbs of food (and counting), which will provide roughly 23,466 meals.

Additionally, hundreds of other area Girl Scouts volunteered their time and energy at the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank and its affiliates including the Foothill Unity Center in Monrovia, Help the Children in Santa Clarita, Food Finders in Long Beach, Grace Resource Center in Lancaster, the Westside Foodbank in Santa Monica, and MEND in the San Fernando Valley. The girls sorted and packaged food to be distributed to those in need and brought donations.

The day of service was a culmination of activities and opportunities the girls have participated in over the last six weeks as part of a patch program. The program included Hunger 101 workshops that taught participants about the hunger crisis in their communities and engaged the girls in interactive scenarios regarding the process of looking for assistance. Girls also ventured to grocery stores and were challenged to shop for nutritional value on a limited budget, compared international food consumption, and learned about spirit of philanthropy.

Spurred into action by the statistic that approximately one in four children in California is at risk of hunger, GSGLA's 45,000 girl members chose hunger as the focus of the organization's annual council-wide service project, just in time to stock local food pantries for the recent high demand.

The Girl Scout program promotes and facilitates the Girl Scout Leadership Experience through initiatives, opportunities, and activities for girls tied to the themes of leadership development, life skills and community service. Programs are girl-led, cooperative, and interactive and each falls under one of five areas: Business Smarts, Environment & Outdoor Adventure, Healthy Living, Science & Technology, and Arts & Culture.


About Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles

Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles is the largest girl-serving nonprofit in the region. The organization serves 45,000 girls in grades K -12 in partnership with 22,000 adult volunteers throughout Los Angeles County and parts of Kern and San Bernardino counties. GSGLA is committed to the extraordinary legacy of Girl Scouts and its mission to build girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place. For more information on how to join, volunteer, or donate, call (213) 213-0150 or 1-888-GSGLA-4-U or visit www.girlscoutsLA.org.


About the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank

The Los Angeles Regional Foodbank is a non-profit, charitable organization and is one of the largest food banks in the United States. Through a network of over 540 charitable agencies with more than 900 sites, the Foodbank supplies food for over 750,000 meals each week in Los Angeles County.