2005 Scouting for Food Results

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2005 Scouting for Food Results

On Saturday morning, November 12, 2005, 34 Cub Scout packs, 21 Boy Scout troops, and the local Order of the Arrow chapter collected 92,064 pounds of food in Loudoun County. This represents a 17% or 13,093 pound increase over our 2004 Scouting for Food collections. This year, Scouts collected 5,106 pounds of food for Messiah's Market, 23,400 pounds for LINK, Inc. and 63,558 pounds for the Community Holiday Coalition as shown in the table below. Beginning today, the collected food will be distributed to Loudoun County residents who are in need of basic human services.

	Loudoun County Food Collections (pounds)
Recipient	2005	2004	2003	2002	2001
Holiday Coalition	63,558	57,855	42,095	34,827	N/A
LINK, Inc.	23,400	16,803	13,975	12,006	N/A
Messiah's Market/ Other (2002)	5,106	4,313		809
Total	92,064	78,971	56,070	47,642	29,000

During this Thanksgiving season, the Community Holiday Coalition expects to serve about 900 families, LINK will serve more than 425 families, and Messiah's Market will serve about 75 families. For the Christmas distribution, the number of families served by the Holiday Coalition and LINK will increase to about 1,200 and 500, respectively. The Scouting for Food drive provides the majority of the non-perishable food for the Holiday Coalition and LINK holiday distributions. These organizations will distribute the food collected by the Scouts beginning today.

The increasing success of the Scouting for Food drive in Loudoun County is largely the result of growth in the Scouting program and improved efficiency in their collection efforts. Each year, many of the existing packs and troops are able to cover a greater number of homes. Also, as new packs and troops form, they are often assigned newly developed subdivisions. An estimated 1,900 Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts participated in this year's drive. In addition, an estimated 1,200 Scout leaders and parents participated.

While collecting 92,000 pounds of food in a morning's work is amazing by itself, the Scouts also do a remarkable job receiving, weighing and stowing the food at four collection sites in Loudoun County. The vast majority of food is received at the collection sites during a four hour period of time. The Boy Scouts unload vehicles, weigh the food, and store it appropriately. In Purcellville, Boy Scouts took a further step and sorted and boxed 12,000 pounds of food, and then loaded the boxes onto pallets for transport to the Community Holiday Coalition. Receiving the donated food at the Holiday Coalition and LINK sites requires significant Boy Scout time and effort.

Our hardworking Scouts and leaders have made Scouting for Food a premier service project. Scouting for Food is just one of hundreds of service projects conducted by Scouts annually in Loudoun County. Thanks to them, over 1,500 families in our Loudoun neighborhoods requiring basic needs assistance will be receiving nourishing food during the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons and beyond.

The Boy Scouts thank TW Perry for providing a truck and driver to transport the 12,000 pounds of food collected in Purcellville. The Boy Scouts also thank Safeway for providing the bags used in the Scouting for Food drive.