On Saturday, September 13th, 2025, Ashton Pinkernell, a senior at New Canaan High School and a 2025 Henrik Lundqvist Foundation Young Ambassador, completed a food drive benefiting Filling in the Blanks, a local not for profit organization that fights childhood hunger by providing meals on the weekend to children facing food insecurity. Filling in the Blanks currently serves over 11,000 students and their families weekly, across Westchester, Fairfield and Putnam counties with in-school pantries, and a mobile pantry providing fresh food and other needed services.
With food insecurity at an all time high, Ashton wanted to help Filling in the Blanks, an organization she has volunteered with for most of her life, stock their pantry to get ready for the new school year. Ashton reached out to her local supermarket, Walter Stewarts, and found a mutually agreed upon date to run the food drive. In addition to her in-person food drive, Ashton created a food drive on Amazon. Ashton reached out to friends and family, near and far, and asked them to support her food drive at Walter Stewarts, and asked those who could not be there in person, to support her online. Ashton collected over 100 items of food during her in-person food drive, and $400 in cash donations. The $400 alone is enough to feed one child for an entire year!
In total, Ashton collected over 500 items of food to help stock the pantry at Filling in the Blanks. Ashton is very grateful to everyone who supported her food drive. Their generosity will have a significant impact on Filling in the Blanks and their initiative of providing meals on the weekend to children in need.
Written by HLFYA Ashton Pinkernell
