Girl Guides collecting used shopping bags to support Fort Erie food banks

Fort Erie families clearing out their cupboards have helped Girl Guides collect more than 300 reusable grocery bags in just one week for local food banks. Girl Guides Pathfinder leader Zoe Sisson said the month-long drive is on pace to top 500 bags before it wraps up on February 25.

Sisson runs the 1st Port Colborne Pathfinders unit for girls aged 12 to 14, with 10 of its 19 members living in Fort Erie.

She said the drive was originally meant to support the Reach Out Centre Food Bank–aka Port Cares–after learning it was running low on shopping bags used for bagging food supplies for low-income users of the food bank.

The initiative has expanded into a multi-unit competition involving Sparks, Embers, Guides and Pathfinders, with participants ranging from age four to 18.

“We already have over 300 bags, and we’ve only been collecting for a week,” Sisson told Fort Erie Radio.

The original plan was just to donate to Port Cares, but the large volume of donations will allow the Girl Guides to share with food banks across Port Colborne, Welland and Fort Erie.

Sisson said the Pathfinders are still deciding which Fort Erie food bank will receive bags.

The drive will allow the Pathfinders to meet certain Girl Guides of Canada badge requirements, including a community service badge called Your Action.

“I think just on a human level, it’s really good to be teaching these girls at a young age about empathy and caring for one another and the importance of coming together for the community,” said Sisson.

Sisson’s Pathfinder unit has also committed to several other community service initiatives, such as a community roadside cleanup on Kilally Street with the Optimist Club, collecting 12 garbage bags of litter this fall.

In October, she said the unit joined the Pathstone Mental Health Socktober Drive and donated more than 200 pairs of socks.

“People are still surprised that Girl Guides still is running,” said Sisson. “I think people forget about it.”

Donations of gently used reusable grocery bags can be arranged by email at zoesisson@hotmail.com.

“Even a small thing, like giving a grocery bag, can make a larger impact in their community and in somebody else’s life,” said Sisson.

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