Daisy Scouts give Girl Scout cookies to those in need

Daisy Scout Troop 15104 hold their boxes of donations in front of the Shepherdstown Shares Food Pantry on Tuesday evening. Sitting in the top row are: Josephine Ward, Raelee Cravens and Cordelia Matthews. Sitting in the middle row are: Arielle Wilson and Emilia Honaker. Sitting in the bottom row are: Lily Vandell, Audrey Vanderhook and Isabel Boggess. Tabitha Johnston
SHEPHERDSTOWN — At the Shepherdstown Shares Food Pantry, coordinator Cari Simon has been thrilled to receive a number of donations through local Girl Scout troops of Girl Scout cookies — enough that all of the food pantry’s customers have received at least one Girl Scout cookie box of their own choosing this month.
“All of our clients have already had an opportunity to have Girl Scout cookies, so any more are just the frosting on the cake, so to speak,” Simon said on Tuesday evening, as she prepared the food pantry for receiving a donation of 57 Girl Scout cookie boxes from Daisy Girl Scout Troop 15104.
According to troop leader Jessie Ward, her troop’s sizable donation was made possible through the generosity of Girl Scout cookie booth customers.
“This is our first year, and this is my first year being a troop leader. This being our first cookie season, I learned that when you buy cookies online, there’s an option to ship cookie donations from a troop to troops overseas. But then I learned that there’s another option that a lot of troops do, where they select a local organization as the recipient for donations,” Ward said in front of the Shepherdstown Shares Food Pantry on Tuesday night. “I thought it would be a good thing to do — a great way for girls to give back to the community.”
Selecting the Shepherdstown Shares Food Pantry as the recipient organization was an obvious decision, according to Ward.

Boxes of Thin Mints, Samosas and other Girl Scout cookies sit in front of the Shepherdstown Shares Food Pantry on Tuesday evening. Tabitha Johnston
“I like to keep things local, if I can,” Ward said. “I’ve known (Shepherdstown Shares President) Jan Hafer for a few years and Cari, as well. I’ve seen them posting on Facebook about Shepherdstown Shares, and it just seemed like the obvious choice to me!”
Ward noted that hers was one of five or six troops accepting Girl Scout cookie donations to local organizations this year.
“It was mostly done at our cookie booth,” Ward said. “The girls, when they were selling cookies and doing their sales pitches, would ask if people would like to donate a box to Shepherdstown Shares. Some people chose to do so, and then would either select a particular box to donate, or would simply donate $5 or $6 and tell the girls to choose the kind of cookie to put in our donation box.”
Although her 11 troop members might not have originally realized the value of the donation, considering that their youngest member is four-years-old, Ward said she anticipated Tuesday evening’s food pantry tour might help them understand it more.
“I think they’ll gain a better understanding then, that there are people who can’t necessarily afford to buy their family’s food,” Ward said, mentioning she plans to raise cookie donations for the Shepherdstown Shares Food Pantry again next year. “This is one way they can help to feed people in their neighborhood. People normally donate things like canned food, rice, things like that to food pantries — it’s nice to know that since this is cookies, this will be kind of a treat for the food pantry’s clients.”
- Daisy Scout Troop 15104 hold their boxes of donations in front of the Shepherdstown Shares Food Pantry on Tuesday evening. Sitting in the top row are: Josephine Ward, Raelee Cravens and Cordelia Matthews. Sitting in the middle row are: Arielle Wilson and Emilia Honaker. Sitting in the bottom row are: Lily Vandell, Audrey Vanderhook and Isabel Boggess. Tabitha Johnston
- Boxes of Thin Mints, Samosas and other Girl Scout cookies sit in front of the Shepherdstown Shares Food Pantry on Tuesday evening. Tabitha Johnston