Scouting For Food
BSA
Mount Baker Council
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Scouting For Food Week March 13 - 20, 2004

March - Scouting for Food Drive

 
Provides Food for Our Needy Neighbors.
Many organizations conduct food drives in November and December and fill the shelves of local food banks. We time our collection to the early Spring when food bank’s are running low on stocks and our help is needed the most. The basic concept of this annual Scouting community service project is to have our Scouts contact residents throughout their neighborhoods, requesting food donations to feed the hungry. Most units have found it to be much more effective to conduct this drive door-to-door or in front of stores, rather than leaving bags on doorsteps and returning a week later to pick them up. Having a Scout appear in uniform asking residents to help the needy is a positive experience for both the Scout and for the donor.

HOW YOUR UNIT CAN PARTICIPATE
Your district’s Scouting for Food Chair will make a brief presentation to unit leaders at the January or February leader’s Roundtable. These are the basic steps to ensure success in helping your community’s needy families:
Step One: Select an area to canvass for food donations and then register that area on the master map at your district’s February leader’s Roundtable meeting. This registration helps to cover your district’s service area and to avoid overlap.
Step Two: Unit leaders decide when your unit will solicit food donations at a time convenient to you. Do it on a weekend, on your den meeting night, pack, troop, crew or ship meeting night or at any time that works with your schedule.
Step Three: Assign neighborhoods to your scouts and conduct the drive. Some units take the same neighborhoods they cover for Christmas tree recycling. Use any bags available to you.
Step Four: Deliver the donated food to one of your county food banks during their open hours or by special arrangement. See the list provided by your District’s Scouting for Food Chair.
Last Step: After the drive, inform the district of an approximate number of containers of food collected so it can be reported to the Council and then to the Region.
If your unit is not able to participate in this service project during the suggested March 13-20 Scouting for Food Week, you may contact your local food bank to arrange for an alternate date that better meets their needs.

Suggested donation items:
Nonperishable foodstuffs like canned fruits, vegetables, soup, stew, meats and sauces. Breakfast foods, pasta, rice and beans, peanut butter, desserts, cooking oil, condiments, juices, powdered or canned milk, pancake mix etc. We try to avoid glass containers.