The holiday season is a time for giving, and for snacks.

The Girl Scouts of Troop 18012 are working to combine these two things together in their latest project.

On Friday, Troop 18012 donated 50 “snack packs” containing an assortment of different snack items to the Newton County School System.

It is part of an ongoing project held by the Giving Hands food pantry of the First United Methodist Church. The pantry will take items that are donated to them, package them up and donate them to children that are in need.

Cadette leader Michelle Floyd says that this is the first time the troop has helped out with this project. After hearing about this opportunity from the county Girl Scout service unit, Floyd knew this was a perfect project for the troop to participate in.

“This is the first time we helped with this project,” Floyd said. “We have had girls volunteer at the food pantry in the past, and we heard about this project from our county Girl Scout service unit. We thought it would be a great service project for the holiday season.”

Troop 18012 first began back in 2017. Currently, there are a total of 17 members in the troop, with members ranging from brownie, junior and cadette levels. Thirteen of those members participated in this project.

According to Floyd, the money that was used to buy the items actually came from various events they have coordinated all year. It is all part of a plan designed to “spend some, save some and donate some” when it comes to figuring out money received from fundraisers and donations.

“We bought the items with troop money that we have collected from donations and fundraisers like Cookie Sales and fall product sales,” Floyd said. “The girls packed the items themselves and we delivered them to the food pantry for them to coordinate to get to the school system.”

Projects like this are not unfamiliar to the troop, as they have already participated in a number of projects throughout the year. Those include donating items to newborn babies at Piedmont Newton hospital, ringing the bell for the Salvation Army and collecting items for the Change the World Day event.

A number of girls in the troop are also seasoned volunteers, with some having as many as 50 volunteer hours on the year.

For this troop, and for the Girl Scouts as a whole, it is all about helping others.

“Our girls love to help others,” Floyd said. “They always come up with great ideas to help our community, or happily participate in events like this if we come to them with an idea. Over the years, we have picked up trash at Turner Lake Park, helped clean up a small family cemetery in Oxford and donated to the animal shelter and animal rescue groups.”

But no matter the idea, the goal of the troop is to give back to the community and to make it a better place.

Floyd hopes that the troop members can take what they have learned from this project and all of the others they have participated in and use it throughout their adult lives.

“We hope the girls will learn to be good stewards of the community and earth by participating in projects like this,” Floyd said. “By instilling these values in them at a young age, we hope they grow up to make decisions to help others on their own in school, church and life. 

“Our Girl Scout Law tells us to be friendly and helpful, considerate and caring and to make the world a better place, and we remind them of that each meeting.”