Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com

Four Girl Scout Troops from Spencer Elementary in Brighton are coming together to help others though a Thanksgiving Food Drive.

Scouts in Kindergarten through 4th Grade have rallied together to create the food drive for the Brighton area. The goal is to put together 100 Thanksgiving food kits for the community so families that may be struggling don't have to worry about Thanksgiving dinner this year.

Items being collected include instant mashed potatoes and gravy, canned corn and green beans, boxed stuffing, pie crusts, canned pumpkin or other filings, cranberry sauce, corn muffin mix, canned fruit, hot cocoa mix, aluminum containers to hold the kits, $20 gifts cards to cover the cost of turkey.

Some businesses have stepped up to help out and serve as donation collection sites. They include:

-Brighton Insurance
-Herndon Insurance
-2 Dandelions Bookshop
-Northridge Church
-The Lingenfelter Collection
-East Main Salon

Each box has a list of items being collected, and the Troops Venmo listed, for monetary donations. Those will go towards supplies to complete the kits with, as well as to purchase gift cards for turkeys. Volunteers are in place to pick up the donations every week. The leaders, volunteers, and scouts will help sort and build the food kits to distribute to local food banks just before the holiday.

The idea was aid to have started out with Amanda Dennis, PTO member at Spencer and Girl Scout Troop 40979 co-leader who wanted to bring attention to food pantries in the area.

Both Stacey Donner, the Leader for the 1st Grade Daisies & 2nd Grade Brownies, and Shannon Nagy, the brand-new Daisy Scout Leader, got involved to help get the project rolling. Scouts will be aiding in collection and distribution, who are said to be excited about “this adventure”.

Nagy told WHMI originally the goal was to just do mainly Spencer families but then they decided they wanted to broaden it community wide to anyone who might need help this holiday season, adding they’ve received great support from the community and local businesses. She noted the Scouts are all kids and this time of year tends to be all about receiving, so their goal is to try and open their eyes to giving. Nagy said it’s also to try and help them understand that they have it pretty good, considering so many families are struggling right now to just put food on the table and they really want to take that burden off them. Whatever is left after the kits are assembled, again, would be distributed to local pantries.

Donations are being collected through November 20th.

More information is available in the provided link.