Earlier this month, 12 members of Junior Girl Scout Troop 6730 received the highest Girl Scout award available to Junior Scouts for their hundreds of hours growing, harvesting, and preparing fresh vegetables for the local food pantry Share of McLean. In part because of the troop’s efforts, Share was able to distribute more than 1000 pounds of locally raised produce to area residents this past growing season.

The Scouts were responsible for planting, weeding and harvesting crops from two local garden plots in the Lewinsville Community Garden and also assisted at the volunteer farms in Culpeper and Woodstock.

Julie Mendoza, the founder of The Gardeners’ Share, presented the Bronze Awards at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens to the Scouts, each of whom had worked at least 20 hours toward the Share project as well as completed an extensive Girl Scout program for Junior Scouts: Zoe Abel, Elena Bachman, Sophia Belvedere, Morgan Feist, Lucy Ferlauto, Kirsten LaForce Regli, Madeleine LeBeau, Sarah Luthra, Audrey Morse, Lila Pournaras, Nina Pournaras, and Anna Stein. Three additional scouts received community service awards in recognition of their efforts: Tryphena Koomson, Sara Mink, and Maya Van Dyke.

Troop 6730 meets at Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church.