Local Troops Collect Donations For Helping Harvest

Scouting for Food is a national program of Scouts BSA, through which local troops collect nonperishable food donations in their communities to benefit area food banks.

As part of the program, Scouts place door hangers in local neighborhoods explaining about the food drive on one weekend and then return a week later to collect the donations left outside near front doors and mailboxes. Residents are asked to place donated items in plastic grocery bags or boxes and attach the door tag to the containers.

Locally, Berks County Scout troops participated in Scouting for Food by collecting nonperishable food items and monetary donations for Helping Harvest, formerly known as the Greater Berks Food Bank.

Scouts BSA Troops and Cub Packs 37, 529, 543, 543G, 595 and 597 collected food from the Amity, Monocacy, Birdsboro, Robeson, Gibraltar, Elverson and Morgantown areas. The groups are part of the Hawk Mountain Council in the Frontier District, which serves Berks, Schuylkill and Carbon counties.

Cory Derer, media chair for the Frontier District, reported that Hawk Mountain Council units from throughout Berks and Schuylkill counties collected 42,086 pounds of food. Locally, 9,000 pounds of food was collected at the Gibraltar collection location. In addition, Helping Harvest received more than $1,581 in monetary donations, which can be used to purchase an additional 19,000 pounds of food.

According to Derer, this year marks the 36th year of the local Scouting for Food collection drive to benefit Helping Harvest. Since 1987, Scouts have garnered more than 2 million pounds of food as well as monetary donations in support of the effort.

Troop 529 has been coordinating the Gibraltar and Robeson Township collection location for more than 20 years. For the past nine years, Troops 529 and 543 have been working together to cover all of Robeson Township, Morgantown and eastern Caernarvon Township and the Flying Hills community in Cumru Township. In 2021, Troops 37 and 543G joined forces with Troops 529 and 543 and expanded their coverage area to include Elverson borough.

On hand at the Gibraltar food collection site this year were Scouts of all ages, along with their friends, family and neighbors, who volunteered to help. Tim Le, 18, an exchange student from Taiwan, who is friends with two of the Boy Scouts, was one of the participants. "Service to people is the most essential thing for every Scout," Tim said. "I was pretty surprised that we can collect so many bags of food. I think people here are really willing to donate some of their food for the needy, (which) is such kind behavior."

Alex Johnson, 12, of Birdsboro, a Tenderfoot Scout in Troop 529, also participated. "This is the fourth year that I've helped with this," Alex said. "I helped collect the food in my neighborhood and then helped to sort it. The fact that I'm helping the community and getting food to people who need it makes it fun."

Helping Harvest, which provides food assistance to residents in need in Berks and Schuylkill counties, is always in need of food and monetary donations. For more information, visit http://www.helpingharvest.org. Those interested in becoming a Cub Scout or a member of BSA may visit https://beascout.scouting.org for more details.