Local Scouts Bring Community Together to Help End Hunger
Scouts Ask for Public to Support Virtual and Doorstep Food Collection Drive
OCTOBER 24, 2024, WASHINGTON, DC— For 38 years, Scouts have collected food for families experiencing food insecurity in the greater Washington, DC region. As part of “Scouting For Food,” Scouting America National Capital Area Council (NCAC) is walking through the local community collecting directly from their neighbors in their annual effort to help alleviate hunger throughout the region.
After notifying neighbors with post notes, flyers, and virtual advertisements about the collection in their neighborhoods on November 2, 2024, Scouts will mobilize on November 9, 2024 to collect non-perishable food items. If a notification is received, residents are asked to participate by placing their donated food items on their doorstep in bags or boxes to aid in the collection process.
Scouting for Food is one of the largest annual food drives in the metropolitan area. Scouts of all ages, from 5 to 20 years old, will participate in Scouting for Food throughout the District of Columbia; the Maryland counties of Frederick, Montgomery, Prince George’s, Calvert, Charles, St. Mary’s; and the Virginia counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Prince William, Loudoun, Fauquier, Spotsylvania, Caroline, King George, Stafford, Culpeper, as well as the cities of Alexandria, Falls Church, Fairfax, Manassas, Manassas Park and Fredericksburg.
If charitable neighbors do not receive a notice at their door, contributions can be made through the virtual Scouting for Food campaign. Partnering with You Give Goods, NCAC has created 19 virtual food drives that will benefit specific nonprofit food pantries throughout the region. The virtual food drives can be found at: https://yougivegoods.com/campaign/view/657
The yearly campaign meets the mission of the Boy Scouts of America, “…to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law” and specifically the part of the Scout Oath that states, “…to help other people at all times.”
“In 2023 Scouts collected over 537,000 pounds of food for families experiencing food insecurity across our council territory,” said Mario A. Pérez, CEO and Scout Executive of Scouting America National Capital Area Council. “We know that almost 1.5 million people in our region are struggling with hunger. Through Scouting for Food, our Scouts, their parents, and adult leaders endeavor to live up to the Scout Law and be helpful by serving their community. Scouting America aims to prepare young people for lives of impact and purpose. This service project demonstrates our commitment to this aim.”
According to the Capital Area Food Bank’s 2024 Annual Hunger Report, “37% of the Washington region – nearly 1.5 million people – didn’t always know where their next meal would come from at some point last year. That’s an increase of 5 percentage points from last year, when 32% of households in the region experienced food insecurity during 2023.”
Scouting for Food is held every fall prior to Thanksgiving. Local food banks rely on the efforts of the Scouts to stock their shelves for the upcoming holiday months when food demands are the highest. Scouts depend on the community to support the effort. Healthy, nonperishable items needed include canned protein (tuna, salmon, chicken); peanut butter; grains (pasta, whole grain pasta, brown & white rice); whole grain hot & cold cereals (multi-grain, low sugar cereals, oatmeal); canned vegetables; and canned fruits.
Scouting for Food is made possible in part by a grant from the Safeway Foundation.
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About Scouting America
Scouting America provides the nation’s foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training, which helps young people be “Prepared. For Life.®” The Scouting organization is composed of more than 1 million youth members between the ages of 5 and 21 and more than 628,000 volunteers in local councils throughout the United States and its territories. Since its inception in 1910, more than 130 million young men and women have participated in the Scouting program. More than 35 million adult volunteers have helped carry out the organization’s mission. For more, please visit www.Scouting.org.
Scouting America National Capital Area Council (NCAC) was organized in 1911 and today stands as one of the oldest and largest councils in America. Scouts from the NCAC do over 370,000 hours of community service each year. NCAC prepares youth for life through outstanding programs that inspire, build character and instill the values that young people need to succeed today. That includes everything from camping and hiking, to community service and leadership development. Each Scout gains experiences that not only help them when they are young, but stay with them throughout their adult lives, helping them grow into adults that respect their family, community, religion, country and themselves which we refer to as the “Scouting Edge.” For more information, please visit www.NCACBSA.org.
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Thanks to Fairfax Master Naturalists and Virginia Native Plant Society members for leading teams of scouts & scouters during the work sessions. Thanks to generous donors who bought native trees & supplies for today’s project: John Selstrom, Dan Kurtenbach, Carol Brown & Sara Holtz. Thanks to the native plant nursery Earth Sangha for giving us a discount on purchasing native trees such as redbud, redcedar, white oak, maple, and hickory oak. Thanks to Carol, Chris & Alan Brown for marking invasive plants in advance of the event. Thanks to all the hardworking volunteers, many of whom did not know Will. Finally, a huge thanks to Carol Brown & Jim Donelson; this project would not be possible without them!
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