Doing A Good Turn

Every November for the past 15 years Jim has headed up the Scouting For Food campaign in a large region spanning many Bay Areas cities. This is a major undertaking requiring a lot of coordination with various food banks and getting a commitment from a major trucking company, Con-way Freight. These people donate their trucks, drivers, equipment and time every year. Jim also organizes 17 site managers for the collections sites and 6,000 Boy Scouts in a concerted effort to help the hungry. He begins this effort in September and works on it pretty consistently for over two months. When he was working his employer gave him time off work to fulfill this commitment!

The following is the flyer he created to be sent out to all the councils, units leaders and Scouts and parents that are involved. I thought it was really neat and it made me very proud of the effort he personally makes each year to feed people that need help. I wanted to share some of the fun statistics with you.

Food Bank of CCS 10/02/2011

"In 1988, the Boy Scouts of America launched the national “Good Turn,” known as Scouting for Food.

It was part of a campaign that targeted what the scouts called five “unacceptables” in society: hunger, child abuse, illiteracy, unemployment and drug abuse.

Last year 2010~165,481 lbs.

Best year 2002~ 204,669 lbs

Average over the 14 years ~ 174,669 lbs.

Last 14 years, since 1997 ~ 2,445,366 lbs of food

That would equal=

(12oz) Cans of soup ~ 3,260,288 lbs

· This would stretch from our town to Sacramento..

.to Lake Tahoe...and then 13 miles past Reno, Nevada

· That’s 1,086,829.33 ft or 205.83 miles if laid end to end!

Why did we do this? Because a Scout is Helpful. We help those in need. Because we have Scout Spirit. We live the Scout Law.

Who does this help? Mostly families and children in our Council who are hungry.

• 12.6 million pounds of food distributed in fiscal year 2009 - 2010 -- that is enough food for over10 million meals.

• 132,000 people served each month through direct service ­programs
• And a network of 180 partner agencies.
• 28% are Children

How did we do that? One can at a time...the can YOU picked up last year...the cans you will pick up this year. What you might think is a little effort is really all the effort that is needed...if everyone does a little, together we can do a lot! Nearly 2.5 million lbs. worth of food!

What can you do to make SFF better? Double our numbers by inviting a friend or encouraging that one Scout who is reluctant to go. On Collection Day stay out just one hour longer."

Me again here now...If you see the Boy Scouts help them out by making a contribution. If you are parent of a Scout, please encourage them. If you are leader, please support the boys in this effort, set a good example for them by getting involved yourself. If you do a good turn and they do one, everyone will have more nights of better sleep. Not having people going to bed hungry every night would be a great way to serve the communities where we live. As for me, I do support this effort and I am very proud of my "Boy" Scout!