Scouts Annual Nutley Food Drive All-Day Tomorrow
• Troops and Red Cross Cite Increased Needed for Donations
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Scouts from Troop 142 along with Cub Scouts from Pack 141 after the 2009 Scouting for Food Collection
Mar 26, 2010 – This Saturday, tomorrow March 27, Boy Scouts troops and Cub Scout packs will be conducting both a food drive for the Nutley Red Cross Food Pantry and a personal care collection for the pantry at Vincent United Methodist Church.
The massive effort began last weekend when scouts visited neighborhoods distributing bags to be filled with food items for collection tomorrow.
Scouts will be returning to neighborhoods tomorrow. Collections will also be made in front of the Park ShopRite on Franklin Avenue.
The collective drive and food distribution program is sponsored by volunteers from the Nutley Rotary Club.
If a scout does not contact a home, donations may be dropped off tomorrow (Saturday) at the Red Cross on Chestnut Street between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. The pickup program coordinators are Sue Brogan and Walt Smith who can be reached at 201-306-9309 or 973-661-0454.
Within 48 hours of the Scouts' pick-up, the donations will be on pantry shelves on Chestnut Street ready to feed the needy.
Some suggestions for food donations include stew, chili, hash, tuna, chunky soups, pasta, pasta sauce, rice, macaroni and cheese, canned vegetables, canned fruit, peanut butter, jelly, hot/cold cereal, coffee, tea, and baby formula/food. The Red Cross accepts all non-perishable groceries, but not expired cans, so please check expiration dates before donating items.
The need this time of the year is especially great. During February the local pantry served 682 people including 235 children. Over 5,000 food items were required, a 60 percent increase over February, 2009. The Red Cross Chapters is also participating in the Feinstein Foundation challenge which divides $1,000,000 among hunger fighting agencies based on the amount of food and monetary donations raised during March and April.
The food pantry at the Red Cross in Nutley is the eighth largest in New Jersey.
Scouting for Food is the nation's largest single-day food drive. Scouting for Food began as a service project for the St. Louis Area Council in 1985 and was adopted by the National Organization in 1988 when one million Scouts collected an estimated 65 million cans of nonperishable food. This year marks the 21st year of this great event. Every year, thousands of scouts and adult volunteers spend two Saturdays doing a "good turn."
Across the country, in many councils and districts, thousands of troops and packs with millions of scouts involved collect tens of millions of pounds of food which is distributed to needy neighbors. Scouting for Food is the nation's largest one-day food drive, raising 15 percent of area food pantries' yearly supply and feeding the hungry in the community for three months.
Every time a Cub Scouts recites the Cub Scout pledge he promises to help others and in the Boy Scout Promise, a boy scout promises to help other people at all times. By participating in a Scouting for Food program, scouts get a step closer to fulfilling those words.
