Girl Scouts work with Peapod to donate food to the Lake Villa Township Food Pantry

About a dozen Girl Scouts from Troop 40138 in Lindenhurst spent their day off from school Friday working to bring donated food to the Lake Villa Township Food Pantry.

The food items were collected through Peapod's "Kids Give Back" program. The Girl Scout troop, made up of second-graders from DJ Hooper Elementary School, also collected donations and food items of their own to donate.

Troop leader Meghan Leverenz of Lindenhurst said Peapod donated $200 to the troop after providing nutrition lessons at troop meetings. The girls logged on to the Peapod website and selected the food items they wanted to donate.

"We found out from the food pantry ahead of time what items were needed, like canned fruits and veggies and pasta. The girls selected items and used math skills to figure out how much they could buy," Leverenz said.

Kids spent about half an hour Friday morning unloading the food from a Peapod truck and then stocked the food pantry shelves of the Lake Villa Township Food Pantry.

"Helping the people in our community is the most important thing," Leverence said. "The girls are excited about helping people in the community and even possibly kids that go to their own school."