Emily Kemper | The Chronicle
The Comet Cupboard has provided weekly meal packs to food insecure students in Mason City Schools (MCS) since 2019. Over time, it has expanded to include hygiene products, spirit wear, winter coats and other essentials, growing from 20 students served weekly to over 200 across the district.
This year, the Girl Scouts of Troop 44405 plan to improve the cupboard by providing families with fresh food products and elementary students with books.
Through a partnership with Dorothy Lane Market’s Good Neighbor program, the cupboard now receives perishable foods twice a week, including bread, fruit, cheese and a variety of other food products. Girl Scout and Mason High School (MHS) junior Abby Christensen said the goal is to include healthier options alongside canned goods.
“We have definitely seen a lot of impact already,” Christensen said. “It’s new [so] we’re still seeing it progress, but we’ve seen growth in it so far. I think two weeks ago we’d given out 1200 loaves of bread, and that’s an old number.”
MHS junior Hadley Rankin said they have now given out over 1500 loaves of bread. Even though the Girl Scouts as well as student volunteers cannot deliver meal packs to protect the privacy of recipients, Rankin said they have been involved in packing and sorting the new food deliveries.
“It’s been really beneficial so far to the Comet Cupboard to have Dorothy Lane help us with meals,” Rankin said.“We give out peanut butter and jelly which is good because it has the protein and nutrients that people need, but sometimes people don’t have bread. It’s really beneficial to have [Dorothy Lane] help us with that.”
Meal packs are delivered by the adult Troop leaders or volunteers, or the Girl Scouts give them to teachers who then give them to students. MHS junior Alexandra Moran said having adults deliver the meal packs makes sure the Girl Scouts do not know who the items are going to, respecting the privacy of their peers.
(Left to right) Abigail Christensen, Anvitha Kakarlapurdi, Prisha Singhal, Kallie Coleman, Hadley Rankin and Alexandra Moran pose close together in front of the MHS Comet Closet.
“We do not know the names of the students getting help because privacy is very important,” Moran said. “When delivering Thanksgiving, spring break or summer packs, we do not let students do the deliveries. If you deliver to a peer it can create an uncomfortable situation, [and] we want our peers to be comfortable.”
MHS junior Prisha Singhal said Troop 44405 wanted to find a new way to improve the cupboard for their Advocacy Project, which Girl Scouts complete to make a change in their community. The troop plans to include books for third through sixth graders in their meal packs to address literacy.
“We decided to make a change to the Comet Cupboard itself,” Singhal said. “We’ve been working on it for so many years and it’s such a big part of our lives. My troop loves to read and talk about books, and when we researched, we found there’s a big link between food insecurity and literacy rates [because] students who can’t afford food likely can’t buy books either. That’s why it was a natural choice to bring that into the Comet Cupboard.”
MHS junior Kallie Coleman said she identifies as an avid reader, and is super passionate about her troop’s advocacy journey. She said she believes reading gives people better word choice, educates them about others perspectives and is a way to escape from the world.
“I want everyone to be able to read,” Coleman said. “I know that’s not possible, but starting somewhere small [with] the people that we give food to in our community is incredibly important to me.”
Coleman said that MHS students are always welcome to support them by volunteering to pack meals at Comet Cupboard on Journey Days and during community packing events for holiday breaks.
“Spending time helping us pack at the Comet Cupboard on your Journey Days [is] definitely appreciated,” Coleman said. “Or if we have a food drive, make sure to donate. We need all hands on deck.”
MHS junior Anvitha Kakarlapudi said that making these changes to the Comet Cupboard and watching it grow since she was in fourth grade has been a meaningful experience. She said she is proud that she can make a difference in the lives of her peers even if she isn’t in the spotlight, and she is excited to keep improving the Cupboard this year and in the future.
“The Comet Cupboard was my way of working behind the scenes to make a difference,” Kakarlapudi said. “I like knowing that we’re making a difference because all our [peers] deserve an equal opportunity to grow and to chase their dreams, [but] not having the food they need makes it hard to accomplish the same opportunities that we do.”
