Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan honors Jehnya Footitt with the most prestigious award in the world for girls: the Girl Scout Gold Award. Jehnya, of Detroit, is among 13 young women who have taken the initiative to bettering their communities through sustainable community change projects. The time and commitment they’ve dedicated towards these projects prove they’re true leaders and exceptional examples for all girls to look up to.

The Gold Award is Girl Scout’s highest honor and is presented to Girl Scouts who address a community issue or problem they are passionate about. They’re required to spend a minimum of 80 hours investigating the problem, creating a plan, and implementing it.

For her Gold Award project, Jehnya chose to provide plant-based food options in senior living homes. She was inspired to take on the project after visiting her great-uncle at his senior living facility and found there were few meal choices for the residents. She decided that she wanted to change this and provide healthier, plant-based options in as many senior
living homes as possible. Multiple studies prove that those on the plant-based diet have a higher chance of reducing and preventing extreme medical problems.

As part of her project, she was responsible working directly with the senior living home staff to ensure there is a plant-based option in every single meal. Her goal was for all of the residents at her uncle’s senior living facility to choose the new plant-based options she helped to provide on the menu at least once a day. She also created and provided a plant-based recipe book for the facility to implement for healthy food options.

The seniors now have the opportunity to choose healthy, plant-based options at each meal. Though the new, plant-based options have not been on the menu for very long, she hopes that the seniors will gain the attitude that plant-based meals are good for you and also taste delicious. The future seniors who will go on to reside at the living facility, and may be plant-based/looking to eat plant centered meals will have the knowledge that they have the means to do so.

“I learned that I’m capable of organizing an entire project without becoming overwhelmed. I’m a positive influence and a leader.”