Carli Clesmere 
With so much happening across the United States right now, local communities are stepping up in powerful ways. In Bergen County, neighbors continue to support each other, especially those facing food insecurity. One standout is Sylvia Brown, a Hackensack High School senior and Girl Scout, who created a mini food pantry at the Hackensack M&M Recreation Center, located at 116 Holt Street, as part of her Girl Scout Gold Award project. Read on to learn more about Sylvia and Hackensack’s first mini food pantry.
Image courtesy of Sylvia Brown.
About the Pantry
Sylvia Brown, a Hackensack High School senior working toward her Girl Scout Gold Award, recently created and installed Hackensack’s first mini food pantry outside the Hackensack M&M Recreation Building at 116 Hold Street. This pantry was fully organized and led by Sylvia as her Girl Scout Gold Award candidate project to help make food more accessible to local families.
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This is not Sylvia’s first time taking on a project that helps her community. In fifth grade, she earned her Girl Scout Bronze Award by working with her troop to support animal welfare and improve shared community spaces. Together, they renovated the dog park in Maywood, making it a safer and more welcoming place for residents and their pups, and collected donations for a local animal shelter.
Sylvia continued this work in eighth grade when she earned her Girl Scout Silver Award by focusing on food access + community wellness. Sylvia helped plan and plant a community garden that provided fresh fruits and vegetables for neighbors facing food insecurity. Through that project, nearly 100 pounds of fresh produce were donated to the Center for Food Action in Hackensack. These earlier projects helped inspire her to take on an even greater effort for her Gold Award.
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Sylvia shared what inspired her to create the pantry, saying, “I saw there was a lot of food insecurity in my community, so I thought making mini food pantries, where people can donate and drop off food, and people can take it for their families when they need it, would be a great idea. People can give what they can and take what they need.”
Hackensack Mayor Caseen Gaines also praised Sylvia’s work, saying, “This is the kind of thing that we should be celebrating. We have one of the students in our schools who saw an issue in her community and earned our support.”
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The mini food pantry is open 24 hours a day and is located outside the M&M Recreation Center at 116 Holt Street. Community members are encouraged to stop by to donate nonperishable food items or take what they need.
For questions or to get involved, Sylvia can be contacted at [email protected].
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