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Gold Award Spotlight: Building Confidence in Food Insecurity
Girl Scout Ambassador Lydia from Troop 1579, now a proud 2025 graduate of Princess Anne High School in Virginia Beach, earned the Girl Scout Gold Award for her work addressing food insecurity among military families in Hampton Roads. Lydia has previously earned both her Girl Scout Bronze and Silver Awards, and used the skills built from those experiences to complete her Gold Award project, which involved creating a helpful website — Patriot’s Pantry — filled with resources to reduce food waste and stretch grocery budgets.
Her Take Action project goes beyond simple community service by tackling the root causes of the issue and making a lasting impact through collaboration with other community members. With the support of chefs from TASTE, Lydia’s website offers easy recipes and videos that focus on using common pantry ingredients and transforming leftovers into delicious new meals, helping families save money and food while enjoying tasty, creative dishes.
Lydia said, “With my Gold Award, I assisted active-duty military families struggling with food insecurity to make the most of the resources available to them, specifically local food pantries. According to Blue Star Families, a group that advocates for military families, 26% of active-duty military families struggle with having enough to eat. This is especially prevalent in younger families and newly enlisted soldiers who either lack the time or experience and knowledge to meal plan and make the most of the resources they are given from local food pantries.”
Staff from the Armed Services YMCA’s Patriot’s Pantry offer the resources routinely to patrons of the pantry on printed cards. There is also QR code signage at Patriot’s Pantry directing people to Lydia’s website for recipes. (Download these samples and try them yourself!)
Congratulations, Lydia!
