Local Girl Scout earns Gold Award with Veggie Village cookbook

THE WOODLANDS, Texas - Kaitlyn Pace, a resident of The Woodlands and Girl Scout of 12 years, attended the state of Texas Girl Scout Gold Award Ceremony in Austin last Saturday. She was one of less than one percent of Girl Scouts nationwide to earn the Gold Award last year.

For a Girl Scout, the Gold Award is the highest honor possible. A Girl Scout who has earned her Gold Award is the female equivalent of the better-known Eagle Scout.

“The project had to meet a minimum of 80 leadership hours,” said Pace. “It had to leave a sustaining impact on the community.”

As a prerequisite for her Gold Award, Pace earned her Silver Award in 2012. She also planned and implemented a take-action project that benefited Interfaith of The Woodlands, the organization she would work with the following year.

“My troop and I built a wheelchair-accessible gardening table for the Veggie Village,” said Pace. “That particular badge was called Sow What. We learned about the importance of local farmers and food engineering.”

The Veggie Village is a community donation garden operated through Interfaith. According to Tracey Halverson, an Interfaith representative who worked with Pace, 75 percent of the fruits and vegetables harvested come back to Interfaith’s food pantry.

Inspired by Interfaith’s mission, Pace chose to work with the organization again for her Gold Award project, which she completed in 2013. The project, she explained, was executed in three phases. It involved numerous sous chefs, stacks upon stacks of paperwork, a project supervisor, printers and other benefactors, several different kitchens and a great deal of support from her family and friends.

“The first part was compiling a cookbook with recipes that included unusual vegetables commonly grown in the Veggie Village,” said Pace. “The second part of my project was running two clinics for the Tamina Community Center and teaching children how to cook some recipes and about vegetables. The third part was collecting donated copies of the recipes in my cookbook. Interfaith can distribute the recipes to the patrons of the food pantry without the financial burden of printing out the recipes.”

According to Pace, the most fulfilling part of her project was the second phase: working with those young aspiring chefs.

“The children I worked with in my classes absolutely loved even just chopping,” said Pace. “I loved the looks on their faces when they discovered healthy food didn’t always have to taste bad.”

Pace’s service has impacted Woodlands residents of all ages. Her cooking clinics benefited children, but her recipes are distributed more widely to the general public and particularly to senior citizens.

“Every other weekend, we have a farmers’ market in various senior living complexes,” said Halverson. “Say, for instance, what [the Interfaith volunteers] harvested for a certain farmers’ market, whatever vegetables they bring, they also bring one of Kaitlyn’s recipes to share.”

This fall, Interfaith’s Veggie Village will be holding a chef table fundraising event focusing on Indian cuisine. It is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 11 in a private home.

In addition to earning her Gold Award, Pace is registered as a lifetime Girl Scout and is bridged to Adult Scouts. Pace spoke on the personal pride she has gained from serving her community.

“I know other girls who are in my troop who could’ve done the Gold Award regret not doing it,” said Pace. “It gave me a sense of accomplishment that no one can take away from me, especially when I think of people’s lives that I’ve changed.”