This Saturday, October 27, Wellesley’s Boy Scout Troops, Cub Scout Packs, Girl Scout Troops, and Venture Crew will be spreading out across Wellesley to place door hangers listing items for the Wellesley Food Pantry to provide to residents in need. The scouts are once again hoping that Wellesley residents will help re-stock the pantry with donations of non-expired, non-perishable groceries, and general household items. Scouts will then return the following Saturday, November 3, to collect all donations that are easily visible from the street and available for pick-up by 9:00 a.m.
The food pantry, which only serves residents of Wellesley, is a critical resource — it provides food security to about 400 individuals, a third of whom are children aged 18 and under, and another third of whom are senior citizens. Last year, the generous, town-wide donations meant that the scouts collected around 17 tons of food for Wellesley Food Pantry, which was sorted and boxed by over 200 volunteers on the day of the food collection.
The Scouting For Food drive is an important source of food and personal care items for the pantry’s clients. The range of goods you can put into the bags to help them 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. This includes Daisy, Brownie, and Junior Girl Scouts in grades K-5 from all seven Wellesley 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. Venture Crew 42, a Boy Scout chartered troop of boys and girls aged 14 to 21, will also participate. The town’s Cub Scout Packs, consisting of boys in grades K-5, and Boy Scout Troops 182 and 185, for boys aged 10-18, are all involved. Amy Fuller Boyd, a troop committee member of Boy Scout Troop 185, is coordinating the drive again this year. Any inquiries about Scouting For Food may be sent to WellesleyScoutingForFood@gmail.com.
