Scouting for Food Campaign gets underway

More than 10,000 local Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts will distribute door hangers throughout Monroe County on Saturday, March 22. Residents may participate by placing non-perishable food items in a recycled plastic bag at their front door by 9 a.m. on March 29. If bags are not picked up, drop them off in the collection barrel at any Monroe County Wendy’s restaurant from March 29 to April 4. The Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts will take the food to 15 collection sites, where is will be sorted for local food pantries and then distributed to needy families in Rochester and Monroe County.

During last year’s Scouting for Food drive, 157 tons of food was collected and distributed, generating enough food to stock more than 69 local food cupboards for four months. This is approximately one-third of the emergency meals given out annually in Monroe County.

“The need for this program is especially great during this difficult economic period,” said Larry Pritchard, Scout Executive, Otetiana Council, Boy Scouts of America. “We are asking citizens of greater Monroe County to contribute and help those in need.”

Sponsors for the program include Wendy’s restaurants, Birds Eye Foods, WS Graphics, RG&E, Jamestown Container Companies, Hammer Lithograph, the Open Door Mission, Fox Rochester, Graebel Van Lines, the City of Rochester and Monroe County.

This year - 2003 - marks the fifteenth year the Boy Scouts have participated in the drive, and the seventh year that Boy and Girl Scouts have collaborated in this effort. For information, contact the Otetiana Council at (585) 244-4210 or the Girl Scouts of Genesee Valley at (585) 292-5160.