Scouting program plans food drive

Local Cub and Boy Scouts will be taking part in a national program to gather food during the Scouting for Food Program in the first two weekends in February.

Local Scouting for Food Chairman Richard Eller noted that the scouts will drop off bags at homes across the county on Feb. 3 and then pick them up the following Saturday.

The bags, plastic grocery bags similar to those distributed at local grocery stores, will be placed on door knobs if no one is home to accept the bag.

Instructions on the bag will guide prospective donors through the process of giving. Those who wish to participate may then place their filled bag outside their home the following Saturday (Feb. 10) to be picked up by the scouts.

"On the bags, there are instructions to have them out there by 9 a.m. the following Saturday and the Scouts will come by and pick them up," Eller noted.

Eller said the scouts are gathering food in their own areas of service and each pack decides which houses to visit. "It's basically done at random," said Eller.

He said the effort helps local scouts fulfill the service they pledge when they join the organization. Eller said, "In the Law of the Pack, a cub scout offers to give good will and in the Boy Scout Promise, a scout promises to always help other people. The Scouting for Food program gives scouts an opportunity to fulfill those words."

Locally, all of the food collected goes to the Solid Rock Food Closet, which serves residents of Alleghany County.

In addition, bags will be available through some churches on Feb. 4 and then be picked up at the churches on Feb. 11. Two Sparta churches are taking part, said Eller: Sparta United Methodist Church and Sparta First Baptist Church. "Individual scouts can take bags to their own churches, if they want and then gather the food," said Eller. In addition, those who wish to participate may also do so at Sparta grocery stores Food Lion and Lowes Foods. Bags will be available there in a display beginning on Feb. 3 and the bags will be collected on Feb. 10, Eller said.

So what should be donated? The scouts urge donors to give easy to prepare, non-perishable items with a high nutritional value that are canned such as meats, fish, vegetables, soups and peanut butter.

"We can't take fresh vegetables or fruits or frozen foods, since we don't have a way to store those," said Eller.

According to information from Boy Scouts of America, the Scouting for Food program has been going on since 1988. Across the country, in many councils and districts, thousands of troops and packs with millions of scouts involved collect tens of millions of pounds of food which is distributed to needy neighbors.

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