Kids & Family
Christina Brown Earns Girl Scout Gold Award
A Girl Scout uses her food sensitivity to create a gluten-free cookbook for the Greenwich High School 'Cardinal Cooks' class.
Christina Brown, a Greenwich High School senior and an Ambassador Girl Scout, recently received her Gold Award, the highest and most prestigious achievement in Girl Scouting.
To earn the Gold Award the Girl Scout to perform a measurable, sustainable 80-plus hour leadership and community service project. Christina, who has been gluten free for several years, chose to enhance the Greenwich High School 'Cardinal Cooks' curriculum to include gluten free options after taking the class and being unable to taste the results.
She spent the past year experimenting with the school's recipes by substituting gluten free flours and other ingredients to create tasty alternatives. It took a lot of inedible mistakes to achieve success but she presented her cookbook earlier this month to Debra Chauvin, Family Consumer Science Instructor at Greenwich High School.
A special area has been set up in the high school cooking classroom for students who are sensitive to gluten, and several have already reaped the benefits. Christina's project sought to offer students with this food sensitivity full participation in the school's cooking curriculum. She hopes that her project will inspire other school districts to consider providing this option for their students as well.
The 17-year-old Christina received her award on April 8. She is one of seven Ambassador Girl Scouts in her troop who have Gold Award projects in progress or completed. The Town of Greenwich has nine Gold Award recipients this year, who will be honored along with an unusually large class of graduating seniors at a dinner in June. Nationwide, only 5% of eligible Girl Scouts achieve the Gold Award.
Copies of the cookbook will be distributed to all the Greenwich middle schools and the Greenwich Library. It can also be accessed online at http://theglutenfreecookbook.weebly.com/index.html
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