The following articles written by Marsha Keefer originally appeared in the April 3rd edition of the Beaver County Times. Used with permission.
During A
pril, approximately 1,000 Scouts will shower homes throughout Beaver County with door hangers announcing this year’s Scouting for Food campaign, an annual partnership of the Laurel Highlands Council of the Boy Scouts of America and the United Way of Beaver County to help stock shelves of area food banks and pantries.
These food banks serve an estimated 4,000 people each month, said Maj. Richard Lyle, the Salvation Army’s Beaver County coordinator. Boy and Cub Scouts will canvass residential neighborhoods for canned goods and nonperishable items that will be delivered to the Salvation Army’s food coordination headquarters in Beaver Falls for distribution to the county’s 15 food banks, soup kitchens and feeding sites.
Frozen or homemade items and those in glass containers are not accepted. After placing door hangers, Scouts will return within a week to collect donations, said Brooke Parker, Beaver Valley senior district executive of the Laurel Highlands Council. Door hangers will specify dates in various neighborhoods.
Residents are asked to place donations in paper or plastic bags or boxes outside their front doors for pickup by 9 a.m. Canned meats, fruits, vegetables, and soups; cereal; peanut butter; pasta; powdered milk; and boxed mixes are some examples of items needed. “At the food bank, the most critical items that we like to receive from donations are protein-related items,” said Lyle. “Peanut butter is a very good item to donate because it’s full of protein,” but so are macaroni and cheese, powdered milk and tuna fish, he said.
Household items such as detergent, soap, toilet paper, cleaning products, diapers (child and adult) and baby formula are needed, too. Though Parker said no goal has been established for this year’s campaign, local Scouts brought in 300,000 to 400,000 units of food last year — three times better than the year before.
A unit of food is equal to a can or package of food worth a dollar, said Nancy Murphy, administrative assistant for United Way of Beaver County. “Certain items have bigger value than others,” said Michael J. Rubino, United Way executive director — for example, cereal, peanut butter, canned meats and diapers.
Point values are assigned to various items to help Scouts quantify — “to give an idea how well they did,” Rubino said. While Scouts coordinate the residential side of Scouting for Food, United Way encourages the business community to get involved. So far, 30 companies and United Way partner agencies are on board, coordinating employee campaigns. Sixteen of those also have volunteered to be collection sites where people can drop off nonperishable canned and boxed goods.
Last year, local businesses donated 30,000 items for the food banks, said Rubino — “a banner year” where donations increased by more than 250 percent. “This year we’re hoping to do better than that,” Rubino said. “It would be great if we could do 35,000 items this year.”
The United Way and Salvation Army also will accept cash donations, Rubino said. For example, FirstEnergy Corp. employees have donated well over $10,000 every year, he said. Checks can be made payable to either the United Way or Salvation Army with “Scouting for Food” notated on the memo line. All proceeds go to the food banks.
