Scouting for Food 2008

Saturday, March 15th, 6 Scouts and 3 adults met at 9am for the Scouting for Food door hanger drop-off. We narrowed our area to between SW Genesee Street and SW Charlestown Street and between 44th Avenue SW and 55th Avenue SW (see the map graphic). This turned out to be good because we ran out of door hangers by the time we got to 55th Avenue, and we started with 600-700 door hangers. We finished up at about 11:15am.

Saturday, March 22nd, we had a much larger turn-out including 15 Boy Scouts, 3 Cub Scouts, and 10 adults to pickup food donations. We met outside the church at 9:30am, divided up the area among the Scouts, and picked up the food with parents following along in cars. They say "Many hands make light work" and that was definitely true this weekend. We were done picking up and weighing 530 pounds of food by 11am. Our drop-off time at the West Seattle Food Bank was 1pm, so we loaded up two vehicles and took a break until 1pm when we dropped off the food.

Scouting for Food is part of the Good Turn for America service initiative, so each Scout Unit reports the total amount of time for both youth and adults involved in the activity. Our Troop had a total of 22 youth and 12 adults and a total of 64.5 service hours.

Some ideas for Scouting for Food 2009 include getting twice the door hangers so we can cover a larger area, and leaving thank you notes with the 2008 photo for houses that donate food. We should also coordinate our calendar with other Units in the District to maximize the volunteer efforts at the food bank.