Rainy weather Saturday didn’t stop the “Scouting for Food Campaign” from collecting non-perishable food items for local food pantries.
More than 600 Boy and Girl scouts and community members participated in this two-week long event.
On Nov. 7 scouts went door-to-door leaving bags on front doors in all five valley towns with instructions that they could place their donated food in the bags and leave it on their doorstep for scouts to come and pick up on Nov. 14.
There were also four drop off locations open Saturday — the Trinity Episcopal Church in Seymour, the Huntington Fire Station in Shelton, the Housatonic Council Boy Scouts of America Service Center in Derby and the Salvation Army in Ansonia — for residents to drop off their goods.
This was the food drive’s twentieth year. Last year, due to the recession, donations were down 50 percent. A tally from the weekend drive will be available later this week.
“We measure donation amounts by how many boxes of food we fill up. Three years ago, we were filling up 600 boxes worth of food, but with the recession last year we only filled 300 boxes,” said scout Will Schmidt, 18, of Oxford.
The food collected during the Scouting for Food Campaign will usually last the food centers through the holidays and into the early spring, Schmidt said. Some of the pantries receiving donations include the Ansonia Salvation Army and the Spooner House.
This was the first year the Girl Scouts participated in the food drive.
Sara Poppa, a Girl Scout cadette from Derby, was on site at the Service Center on Derby Avenue collecting food donations.
“I spent last weekend labeling boxes and putting up flyers to make people aware of the event,” she said.
The Scouting for Food program is sponsored by The Valley Community Foundation, Paugassett Lodge, Order of the Arrow Lodge #553, ShopRite Supermarket, Derby, and The Valley United Way.
Until Nov. 20, non-perishable items are still being accepted at the Council Service Center, 326 Derby Avenue (Route. 115) in Derby, Monday – Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
