It was a smack down Saturday between Troop 118 and Troop 39 in south Charlotte.

But because they are Boy Scouts - and the Scout oath demands courtesy - they used more polite terms to describe their battle to collect the most food in the annual Scouting for Food drive.

"Brisk competition," said Gene Stegall, who serves on the food drive committee for Troop 39 from Matthews United Methodist Church.

"A competition that benefits everybody," said Troop 118 Scout master Stephen Pace, from St. Stephen United Methodist Church in south Charlotte.

Troop 118 has a tradition of hauling in the most food of any Mecklenburg County troop in the Scouting for Food drive. The drive benefits the nonprofit Loaves & Fishes, which operates 19 Mecklenburg County food pantries and also kicked off its own food drive Saturday.

This year, Troop 39 set its sights on bumping Troop 118 from the top of the food pyramid.

"One of the elements of the Scout oath is 'Do your best,' " said Stegall, standing in the parking lot of Trinity Presbyterian Church at the food drive weigh-in. "We realized that Troop 39 hadn't been doing a very good job of that. So we decided to amp it up."

The Matthews troop did that by getting about 20 area companies to contribute to the drive. Their donations helped push Troop 39's total to a record 41,680 pounds of food. Troop 118 collected 23,697 pounds.

"I think it's the best thing in the world that ever happened," Pace said of the Matthews troop's upset. "I wish every troop in the council would come after us. Think of what we could accomplish."

The real winner Saturday was Loaves & Fishes, a group that provides a week's worth of free groceries to people in crisis.

Happy at Loaves & Fishes

Executive Director Beverly Howard was thrilled that the competition had boosted food donations to a new record for a single troop.

The total amount of food collected by the entire Mecklenburg County Council of the Boy Scouts was not available late Saturday. All of the food goes to Loaves & Fishes.

"We could never stock our pantries through the winter and spring without the Scouts," Howard said.

Last year, scouts brought in 75 percent of the 230,000 pounds of food donated during Loaves & Fishes largest annual food drive.