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Local Scouts Help Alleviate Food Insecurity with Annual Food Drive

One in Three Residents Struggle as Scouts Begin 36th Annual Food Drive

NOVEMBER 4, 2022, WASHINGTON, DC— Local Scouts will be kicking off the 33^rd annual Scouting for Food this month. Scouts will post notes, distribute flyers, and advertise virtually to homes throughout the DC metro area on the first weekend of November, then return to collect non-perishable food items on the second weekend, primarily Saturday, November 12, 2022.

Scouting for Food is one of the largest annual food drives in the metropolitan area. Scouts of all ages, from 6 to 21 years old, will participate in Scouting for Food.

“”Last year our scouts collected over 667,000 pounds of food for needy families across our Council territory and that’s about the loaded weight of a Boeing 747 as it’s getting ready to take off,” said Craig Poland, CEO and Scout Executive of the National Capital Area Council, BSA. “Through our Scouting for Food effort we provide the opportunity for scouts to learn the impact possible when they directly help the community.”

According to the Capital Area Food Bank’s 2022 Hunger Report, food insecurity affects approximately 33 percent of people in the Washington, D.C. area. High food and fuel prices have impacted family budgets and contributed to a greater and more desperate need for regular access to nutritious food.

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. Items needed include canned protein (tuna, salmon, chicken, peanut butter); soups and stews (beef stew, chili, meat-based soups); 100% fruit juices (all sizes); grains (pasta, whole grain pasta, rice, brown rice, boxed macaroni and cheese); cereals (multi-grain, low sugar cereals, oatmeal); canned vegetables; and canned fruits.

In an effort to promote sustainability and further the Scouting’s tradition of conservation, the Scouting for Food event has eliminated the distribution of plastic bags from its program and will instead use self-adhesive posts, fliers, and door hangs. Community members are asked to provide bags or boxes with their donations to aid in the collection process.

Scouting for Food is co-sponsored by the Safeway Foundation.

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About Scouts, BSA and the National Capital Area Council

Scouts, BSA 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 2.6 million youth members between the ages of 6 and 21 and more than a million volunteers in local councils throughout the United States and its territories. For more, please visit www.Scouting.org.

National Capital Area Council was organized in 1911 and today stands as one of the oldest and largest councils in America. Scouts from the NCAC do over 400,000 hours of community service each year. The Council territory includes the District of Columbia; Frederick, Montgomery, Prince George’s, Calvert, Charles, and St. Mary’s counties in Maryland; and in Virginia the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Prince William, Loudoun, Fauquier, Spotsylvania, Caroline, King George, Stafford and Culpeper as well as the independent cities of Alexandria, Falls Church, Fairfax, Manassas, Manassas Park and Fredericksburg in Virginia; and the U.S. Virgin Islands. For more information, please visit www.NCACBSA.org.