Girl Scouts Serve Up Homemade Meals for the Lonely

Normally, a day off from school is the perfect time to do, well, pretty much nothing. It's a little different from a weekend, when there are birthday parties to attend, soccer games to play or house chores to perform. The occasional weekday break is the kids' time to sleep in, pick a spot on the couch, and just veg.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is not one of those days, at least not for the members of Girl Scout troops 21231, 21027, 2011, 2816 and 267, who spent a good chunk of the day preparing 500 home-cooked meals at the North and Southampton Reformed Church.

"The girls get excited for this every year," said Shelly Orzehoski. "We've been doing it for the past three or four years. We have all these girls from different troops in all the age groups working together on this."

Each troop, headquartered through the Centennial School District and Nativity of Our Lord, came with their own menu ideas prepared ahead of time, including chili, chicken nuggets, chicken parm, baked ziti, meat loaf and more. You know, the good stuff.

The young volunteers arranged themselves into conveyor belt formation and started dishing out the delicious food into trays provided by Aid for Friends. The non-profit will collect the food and distribute amongst its network of volunteers, who will then deliver them to elderly and homebound clients located throughout the greater Philadelphia area and who have difficulty making their own dinners. 

Each meal also comes with some cookies and a message of support from the scouts. The two-step process means that the girls do not know who will ultimately receive their donations, but the anonymity does not stop them from putting their hearts into the day of service.

"The people at Aid for Friends are always very grateful," said Orzehoski. "You can see from the quality of the meals how much the girls care about helping them."