2005 World Thinking Day Activities

World Thinking Day 2005 was 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. Girls were able to 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 2005 World Thinking Day, Girl Scouts remembered the millions of people all over the world—including the United States—who face hunger and malnutrition. They used the opportunity to think of ways to make a difference in their own communities, either 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 STUDIO 2BSM 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/escape/destinations.

Listed below are the 2005 World Thinking Day activity ideas, which combined detective work about foods of the world with the spirit of service.

1. 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 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.

2. 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

3. 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.

4. 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 continents:

• www.cooksrecipes.com/category/international.html
• www.epicurious.com

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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 the types of food that are common in different parts of world. Girls can visit the National Geographic Food Lesson Plans site and learn how to extend these lessons to their schools and communities. Girls should pick the grade level appropriate for them.

8. 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, raise awareness about the scale of world hunger, and share the facts with people in your community or your troop members. Resources for hunger awareness include:

• United Nations' World Food Programme
  www.wfp.org



• Action Against Hunger
  www.aahuk.org



• War on Hunger
  www.waronhunger.org



• National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness
  www.nscahh.org/hunger.asp



• United Against Hunger
  www.unitedagainsthunger.org

9. 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 U.S. give to the Fund, as a way to show that they are thinking of their sisters in Girl Scouting/Girl Guiding around the world. 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 U.S. under the STUDIO 2B destinations program, helping them develop an international perspective.



• Support to the four World Centers operated by WAGGGS and 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.

Read more about the Juliette Low World Friendship Fund and find out how to donate.