On Saturday, October 28, Wellesley’s Boy Scout, Girl Scout, Brownie and Daisy Troops, Cub Scout Packs and Venture Crew will be spreading out across Wellesley to place requests for the Wellesley Food Pantry for those in need at almost every residence in town. This year the residents will receive a door hanger with a list of the products most needed by the pantry. Scouts will then return the following Saturday, November 4, to collect all donations.
Last year, the generosity of almost 7,400 Wellesley residents meant that the scouts collected around 10 tons of food for Wellesley’s Food Pantry, which was sorted and boxed by over 230 volunteers (including many scouts and parents) on the day of the food collection.
This year the scouts are once again hoping that Wellesley residents will help re-stock the pantry with donations of non-expired, non-perishable groceries and household items. They will pick up the donations on November 4 around 9 a.m.; residents are asked to have donations visibly placed outside their homes by that time. The bags will then be taken to Wellesley Hills Congregational Church, where the Food Pantry staff and volunteers from churches, schools and civic groups will unload, sort, box and store the donated food throughout the day.
The Food Pantry is a critical resource for food security to a large number of Wellesley residents: more than 420 individuals, a third of whom are children and another third are senior citizens. WFP only serves residents of the town.
Over the past few years the number of people in need has grown; the “Scouting for Food” drive is an important source of food and household goods for them. The range of goods that may be donated is lengthy: canned meats, fish, ravioli, beef stew, tomatoes, pasta and pasta sauce, cereal, macaroni and cheese, plain brown or white rice, hearty chicken or beef soup, baked beans, coffee, peanut butter, jelly, mayonnaise and vegetable oil, laundry detergent, bar soap, toilet paper, toothpaste and paper towels. The Food Pantry cannot accept anything in glass containers, perishables, Halloween candy or expired food.
All types and levels of Scouts participate in Scouting for Food, including Daisy, Brownie and Junior Girl Scouts in grades K-5 at the various Elementary Schools, Cadette Girl Scouts in grades 6-8 from Troop 73505 and Senior and Ambassador Girl Scouts in grades 9-12 from Troop 73200. For a second year, Venture Crew 42 will be helping out; the crew consists of boys and girls aged 14 to 21. The Cub Scout Packs at the various elementary schools and Boy Scout Troops 182 and 185, for boys aged 10-18, are all involved. Amy Fuller-Boyd and Rula Salameh, Troop Committee members of Boy Scout Troop 185, are coordinating the drive this year. Any enquiries about Scouting For Food may be directed to WellesleyScoutingForFood@gmail.com.
Residents are asked to look out for their door hangers on October 28 and remember to put donations out on Saturday, November 4.
