Herndon Girl Scouts Bake Friendship Bread For LINK
HERNDON, VA — While many Fairfax County students have been stuck at home during the coronavirus pandemic trying to keep themselves from being bored, a troop of Herndon Girl Scouts have been busy doing something positive for the community.
The eight girls of Cadette Troop 1105 are participating in what they call the "Cinnamon Bread Project," baking loaves of cinnamon bread for LINK, which provides emergency food and financial assistance for people in need.
"My girls like to bake," said Troop Leader Marcy Brizzolara. "Last summer, they did a lot of baking for homeless shelters and they baked for senior citizen homes. They even baked a bunch of food for animal shelters."
The girls attend Herndon and Langston Hughes middle schools, and Clearview Elementary, and like other Fairfax County students, they were looking for a project to keep them busy when they're not taking classes remotely.
Someone in Brizzolara's neighborhood began making Amish Friendship Bread. One person creates a starter for the dough and shares pieces of it with their friends, who then bake loaves and share the starter with others. "It's kind of like chain mail, but it's food," she said.
When Brizzolara received a piece of the starter, her daughter Miranda suggested that the Cadette Troop 1105 bake loaves of bread for LINK.
"So, we got two starters and passed it out to the Girl Scout troop," Brizzolara said. "All of them have starters now and some more neighbors have it as well. The idea is that they take these starters and they add whatever needs to be added to make bread and they make bread out of it. Then we donate it to LINK for the shelter over there."
Two weeks ago, Cadette Troop 1105 made an initial donation of 27 loaves, and they followed that up with another 72 loaves this past Monday.
Bob Ashdown, who handles food donations for the nonprofit, told Brizzolara that the LINK pantry was feeding more people than ever due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"Our drivers will distribute the bread directly to the homes of those we support. It is wonderful to experience the enthusiasm of the girls helping their neighbors," Ashdown said, adding that last Sunday happened to be the Christian Feast of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit first descended on Jesus' followers. "The Holy Spirit is alive and well in Herndon touching the hearts of these girls as well as other members of the community."
LINK President Lisa Lombardozzi also had praise for the scouts: "We love the donations these girls give to LINK."
The Cinnamon Bread Project has been a welcome distraction for the girls, according to Brizzolara. During the pandemic, the troop couldn't get together. Instead, they would hold Zoom meetings.
"We haven't met in person, which is why this project works out quite well," she said. "It's stuff that they can do, they like to do, but they can do it in their own homes."
Amish Cinnamon Bread - Recipe by Michael O'Connell on Scribd
This article originally appeared on the Herndon Patch
