NCAC Scouts Help Alleviate Food Insecurity with Annual Food Drive
Scouts Add New Way of Donating Food through a Virtual Collection Drive
OCTOBER 12, 2023, WASHINGTON, DC— Local Scouts will be kicking off the 37th annual Scouting for Food in the greater Washington, DC region. Scouts will post notes, distribute flyers, and advertise virtually to homes throughout the DC metro area from October 28th through November 5th with instructions on when they will return to collect non-perishable food items in each neighborhood. Community members are asked to provide bags or boxes with their donations to aid in the collection process.
This year, community members also have the option of donating through a new virtual Scouting for Food campaign. Partnering with You Give Goods, National Capital Area Council, (NCAC) has created 15 virtual food drives that will benefit specific nonprofit food pantries throughout the Council territory. The virtual food drives can be found at: https://yougivegoods.com/ncac-scoutingforfood2023
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 throughout the District of Columbia, as well as 16 counties in Maryland and Virginia. 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 2022 nearly 10,000 youth and 6,500 adults participated in the drive and collected over 642,000 pounds of food for needy families across our council territory,” said Mario A. Pérez, CEO and Scout Executive of the National Capital Area Council, BSA. “Through our Scouting for Food effort we provide the opportunity for Scouts, Scouters, and youth volunteers to serve their community and learn that they can positively impact the lives of their neighbors.”
“I have had the opportunity to participate in various community service projects through Scouting, such as collecting food for the Scouting for Food program and helping in multiple Eagle Scout projects,” explained Life Scout Owen B. “These experiences have taught me the importance of giving back to my community, and the value of helping those in need.”
According to the Capital Area Food Bank’s 2023 Hunger Report, “One in three residents – 32% – did not know where their next meal was coming from at some point between May 2022 and April 2023. That’s essentially unchanged from the 33% of respondents who reported experiencing food insecurity in the 2022 survey.”
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. Healthy items needed include canned protein (tuna, salmon, chicken); peanut butter; grains (pasta, whole grain pasta, brown & white rice, corn & flour tortillas); whole grain hot & cold cereals (multi-grain, low sugar cereals, oatmeal); canned vegetables; and canned fruits.
Scouting for Food is co-sponsored by the Safeway Foundation. 
# # #
About BSA and the National Capital Area Council
The Boy Scouts of America (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 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 BSA’s youth programs. More than 35 million adult volunteers have helped carry out the BSA’s mission. For more, please visit www.Scouting.org.
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 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.
