Several thousand Scouts, along with an estimated 1,000 parent volunteers, collected a record amount of food in this year’s annual Scouting for Food drive.
The annual event has been held in Mecklenburg County for more than 20 years, and six years ago the collection topped 100,000 pounds of food for the first time. This year, Scouts collected 264,676 pounds, almost 10,000 more than the 2012 total.Del Whittaker, Scouting for Food chairman for the Mecklenburg County Council of the Boy Scouts of America, said Scouting for Food was becoming a more important part of area scout groups’ annual plan.“Scouting for Food has grown, and each year we have more units going out and delivering more bags and picking up more bags,” Whittaker said.The event is part of Boy Scouting’s imperative to “do a good turn” in the community.The food drive took place over a week in February. Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts dropped off paper bags at doorsteps one weekend, and residents who participated filled them with food for pickup the next weekend.The food was sorted and then delivered to Loaves & Fishes, a Charlotte food pantry. According to the Loaves & Fishes website, the organization provided a week’s supply of groceries to almost 127,000 people in 2012, an 11 percent increase from the previous year.Almost half of the people who receive food from Loaves & Fishes are children.Whittaker estimates that more than 4,000 Scouts participated in the 2013 Scouting for Food event.
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Friday, Mar. 01, 2013
Scouts’ food drive sets record
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Want more information? For more information about Loaves & Fishes, visit www.loavesandfishes.org.
Marty Minchin is a freelance writer. Email her with story ideas at martyminchin@gmail.com.
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