This year’s World Thinking Day is all about FOOD! What a great opportunity for Girl Scouts to celebrate the cooking of various cultures and become aware of issues concerning food within our communities and beyond. Tasting teas and international food fairs are tried and true ways to approach this theme, and effective ways to raise funds for the Juliette Low World Friendship Fund.

Girl Scouts approaching the theme on a broader scale can discover how food is produced, where various foods come from, and what dishes are associated with particular countries. Think of how your own diet here in the U.S. has changed with the number of international foods you enjoy. While celebrating this year’s World Thinking Day, Girl Scouts might also remember the millions of people all over the world – including the United States – who are facing hunger and malnutrition. Use the opportunity to think of ways to make a difference in your own communities, whether by engaging in Girl Scout activities that involve food and nutrition or by volunteering in schools and communities.

As always, we hope you will help further International Girl Scouting by donating to the Juliette Low World Friendship Fund, which supports GSUSA’s international travel programs and provides critically needed support to WAGGGS and our own sister Girl Guiding organizations. Your donations will help Girl Scouts travel abroad on GSUSA destinations this year, sponsor girls from foreign countries to attend activities here in the United States, and send girl and adult representatives from GSUSA to important World Association events abroad.

For more information about destinations, check out www.studio2b.org.

Listed below are activity ideas to add flavor to your celebration of the 2005 World Thinking Day. Here’s a chance to combine detective work about foods of the world with the spirit of service, to make your World Thinking Day the best ever.

Sister-to-Sister Recipes

Connect with Girl Scouts and Girl Guides around the world and find out what they are eating. Use the 2005 World Thinking Day Web site at http://www.wagggsworld.org/fundraising/thinkingday/index.html to post a recipe idea or view other food and recipes of Girl Scouts or Girl Guides from other WAGGGS member organizations.

Closer to home, ask a troop member who has lived abroad or celebrates her culture through cooking family recipes if she has a favorite recipe to share. Prepare a meal using the recipe and exchange ideas and opinions about the food. Share this recipe with your troop members or with people in your school or community. Or have a potluck, with each family bringing a delicious dish that’s part of their cultural heritage.

Healthy Eating Habits

Learn what foods are healthy to eat. Share “smart” eating habits and information about the essential foods that can affect your health your whole lifetime. Visit these Web sites to find out more:

www.kidshealth.org

www.yourchildshealth.com/nutrition/habits.html

Feed The Hungry

Find out what organizations are working in your community to address hunger and which people are affected by it the most. Work with an organization to organize a food drive or contribute to one that is ongoing. (Find out what food donations are needed, before you gather the food items.) Or, if you have the opportunity, volunteer at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter, or help stock the shelves in a food pantry. Afterward, discuss your experience with your family and troop/group.

Research International Recipes

Look for international cookbooks in the cooking section of your school or local library, or surf for recipes online. Select a recipe that appeals to you, and try it out with your family or friends. On the following Web sites, recipes are grouped according to countries and continent

www.cooksrecipes.com/category/international.html

www.epicurious.com

Girl Scout Activities

Visit the Girl Scout Central section of the GSUSA’s official Web site at http://www.girlscouts.org/program/gs_central/. Click on the Awards, Badges, and Other Insignia link and look for awards with a food or nutrition theme; it could be healthy lifestyles, food production, or hunger. If you have not participated in any of the activities, try one of them as your way of celebrating World Thinking Day.

Explore a Sister Country

Choose a country that is part of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) and find out what type of hunger or food issues they face. Compare them with conditions in the United States or your community. Discuss these findings with your troop members. Find out what kind of aid that country is able to provide to those who are hungry and if they can receive assistance from other countries through such organizations as the United Nations, Heifer International, or CARE.

Food Production

Get together with your troop and plan a trip to a farm to discover how various crops are produced and how animals are raised for food. Ask the farmers about food production and their ‘best practices’ for producing healthy food for consumption. Keep a record of your experiences and share this with your troop.

National Geographic Food Lesson Plans

Lesson plans are available for Girl Scout troops to learn about the characteristics of the world’s regions, landscapes, and cultures and to investigate their foods. These links also encourage girls to extend these lessons to their schools and communities. Girl Scout troops should follow this link for the Lesson Plans:

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/

Once there, connect to the "find a lesson plan" link. On the top of the page, click on number 4 of the places and regions section. When you get to the new page, select the international food court from the drop box. Girls should pick the grade level appropriate for them.

Raise World Hunger Awareness

An estimated one billion people in the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition. More than 800 million people go to bed hungry every day and 24,000 people die each day from hunger and hunger-related causes, 11,000 of them are children. Use this opportunity to learn more about the issue of hunger and malnutrition, to raise awareness about the scale of world hunger, and share the facts with people in your community or your troop members.

Resources:

www.wfp.org

www.aahuk.org

www.waronhunger.org

www.nscahh.org/hunger.asp

www.unitedagainsthunger.org

Donate to the Juliette Low World Friendship Fund

Help promote international friendship at a national level by giving money to the Juliette Low World Friendship Fund from your group’s funds or a special World Thinking Day Event. World Thinking Day is a day on which many Girl Scouts here in the USA give to the Fund, as a way to show that they are thinking of their sisters in Girl Scouting/Girl Guiding around the world. For example, why not charge a small fee for your recipe tasting, donate the cost of a snack for one of your meetings, or collect change from your pockets for a month leading up to World Thinking Day? You’ll be surprised how this money adds up!

Donations to the Fund support:

§ International travel opportunities for girls in the United States to travel overseas and for girls from other countries to come to events in the USA under the STUDIO 2Bsm destinations program, helping them develop an international perspective.

§ The four World Centers operated by WAGGGS, located in Mexico (Our Cabaña), Switzerland (Our Chalet), England (Pax Lodge), and India (Sangam), enabling the centers to offer scholarship assistance for seminars and trainings for young women.

§ Financial aid to Girl Guiding/Girl Scouting organizations through the Mutual Aid program, providing funds to WAGGGS organizations requiring funding, training, or emergency assistance.

§ Juliette Low Seminars, held twice each triennium at a World Center, bringing together young women from around the world.

Please note that as of October 1, 2004, troop donations to the Juliette Low World Friendship Fund should be sent to local Girl Scout councils rather than directly to GSUSA. The donations will be batched by councils and sent to the Fund periodically. If for some reason it is not possible to send a donation to your local Girl Scout council, donations can be sent to:

Girl Scouts of the USA

Juliette Low World Friendship Fund

P.O. Box 19611A

Newark, NJ 07195-0611

Please make checks payable to Girl Scouts of the USA, and use the code JLWFF on the memo line to ensure the money is credited to the Juliette Low World Friendship Fund.

We look forward to an exciting, successful, and nourishing 2005 World Thinking Day!

Related Information:

www.studio2b.org/

www.wagggsworld.org/fundraising/thinkingday/index.html