The Westchester-Putnam Council of Boy Scouts is once again mobilizing its 10,000+ youth members to address hunger in Westchester & Putnam Counties. Scouts will be helping kids and families through the annual "Scouting For Food Canned Food Drive - Good Turn Project."
The campaign will involve a door-to-door food collection effort by Cub and Boy
Scouts, Commerce Bank and Food-PATCH.
What is the Need?
Hunger hurts. Approximately 200,000 families are now served by food
pantries, soup kitchens and shelters in Westchester County alone. Hunger strikes
all ages. The elderly, the disabled, the homeless, the unemployed, women and
children all need food. In fact, approximately 36% of the clients of the
Food-PATCH are children. This Good Turn is about “Kids helping Kids.” Food
shortages abound. Over 200 agencies rely on Food-PATCH as their primary source
of food.
What Can We Do to Help?
A great deal. Any canned food in good condition will be welcome. However,
specific foods are preferable for their nutritional value. These preferred goods
include canned meat, stews and tuna, chunky-type soups, baby
formula, and any complete canned meals. Health laws prohibit
collection of home-canned, home-packaged goods or foods with broken seals.
Perishables like milk cannot be collected.
As Scouts, we have a duty to not only do a good turn daily, but
to help other people at all times. We have partnered with the food bank of
Westchester, and Putnam County Community Action Program to do our part to ensure
that no child goes to bed at night hungry.
Scouts throughout Westchester-Putnam counties will collect canned food items and deliver them on
October 27 to a local Commerce Bank for pickup by the Westchester County
Food-PATCH, which will insure that the donated food items will be given to needy
families. Prior year's efforts yielded over
8+ tons of food! Pack 33 collected over 300 bags and this year we hope to
exceed that amount.
What Should I Do?
For Pack 33, bags were distributed at the October Pack meeting
and can also be picked up at Bill Quinn's house at 217 Larchmont - take one bag
(with 9 bags packed inside) from his porch. Scouts should
visit at least 10 neighbors to ask for food and/or leave a bag during the week of
October 20-26, pick up the food by the end of the week, and
then drop off their bags Saturday, October 27 at
CommerceBank, 107 Chatsworth Avenue (across from the
Larchmont Tavern), between 9am and 1 pm.
Scouts should wear their uniforms when out collecting and dropping off, and should be accompanied by an adult as necessary. In addition to doing a good turn and helping people in need, participating scouts will receive an award patch, so
make sure to count and report how many items of food you collected when you drop
off your bags.
Also for the first time this year we will have prizes
for those who collect the most items, dens with the highest participation, etc!
We need volunteers to help staff the collection site on October 27th.
If you can spare 30 minutes or an hour to help out, please contact Bill
Quinn at quinnwremove@optonline.net (omit the "remove") or 834-6414.
For more information about this worthy cause you can visit the Boy Scout Council at
www.goodturnforamerica.org or
www.wpcbsa.org.
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