PROVO -- You could feed an army with 900,000 pounds of food, but you'd barely have enough for a community.
That's why an army of troops will be mobilized March 27. They're the Boy Scouts of America, and with the help of community residents and volunteers, they will be fighting two scheming foes -- hunger and poverty.In the annual Scouting for Food drive, Scouts collect and donate literally tons of food to the Utah Valley Regional Food Bank. Last year, the drive produced more than 193,000 pounds of food, which went a long way to fight hunger in Utah and Summit counties.
However, the Utah Valley Regional Food Bank needs to gather more food during this year's drive to have the same impact on hunger.
"Our goal is to gather 250,000 pounds of food this year," said Myla Dutton, director for Community Action Services, the human services agency co-sponsoring the drive. "An increase in the number of families needing assistance has put a strain on all of the food pantries. Not only are we helping more families, but we are also assisting families for longer periods of time, allowing them to meet other financial obligations and avoid homelessness."
One week before the day of the drive, Scouts will deliver plastic bags to residents in the community. Residents are asked to fill the bags with non-perishable food items and leave them on their porches the following Saturday for collection. On March 27, Scouts will collect the bags and take them to designated collection points. There the bags will be loaded by the Utah National Guard onto Army trucks and taken to th Utah Valley Regional Food Bank.
The Scouting for Food drive is the single largest campaign of the year for Community Action Services. For more information about how to get involved call 373-8200.