Boy Scouts go scouting for food in March
Area Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts are true Hunger Heroes. For the past 29 years, the Scouts have been collecting food during their Scouting for Food drive, and this year they will do it again.
Scouts and their leaders go door to door in local neighborhoods to accept food donations throughout the month of March, with a wrap-up event on March 31 at local retail stores. The food is delivered to Ozarks Food Harvest or directly to partner food pantries in smaller communities.
Last year, the Scouts collected more than 38,000 pounds of food — 32,000 meals in all — during the drive. Kurtis Grothoff, an Ozark Trails Council district executive who coordinated last year’s Scouting for Food, said the collection “crushed” previous records.
“We’re so proud of the area Boy Scouts and their record collections during this year’s Scouting for Food,” said Bart Brown, president and CEO of Ozarks Food Harvest.
“Scouting has a long-standing mission of giving back to the community, and we look forward to this project each year because it creates an immediate impact in the lives of our neighbors here at home,” said John Feick, CEO of the Ozark Trails Council.
The Ozark Trails Council serves 7,500 youth members across southwest Missouri and southeast Kansas. It is the mission of the Boy Scouts of America to prepare young people to make moral and ethical choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and the Scout Law.
The Scouting for Food drive is part of that mission by providing a great way to engage young people in Ozarks Food Harvest’s mission of Transforming Hunger into Hope and encourage them to think of others.