Over 3,500 items were donated Saturday during the 36th annual Scouting for Food Drive, with collections continuing throughout the weekend.
From March 25 through Thursday, members of eight local organizations passed out flyers to residences across the city encouraging community members to donate canned and dry goods.
Organizations participating in the event included the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, 4-H Club, Lions Club, National Honor Society, United Methodist Church and the Ministerial Alliance Food Pantry at the St. Paul Church of Christ.
Once collected, donated items were driven to St. Paul Church of Christ, where food pantry volunteers unpacked, dated, organized and shelved them for later use.
“There’s a lot of nice groups that have been helping for quite a while to help this community. And this community has grown bigger so there was a definite need for additional help as the years passed,” said John Scott, the drive’s long-time organizer.
Donna Brown, a 15-year veteran of the food drive, helped Saturday by checking the dates on canned goods. Brown said she was surprised by the number of volunteers who showed up to help.
Food pantry coordinator Marsha Gordon said at least two dozen volunteers turned out. Some parents, like Kari Mack and Tonya Purcell, brought their kids to help.
The food drive originated in 1988, as shortages at the time caused food insecurity across eastern Kansas.
“I was working with the Boy Scout troop here in Eudora, and we got a request from our council down in Kansas City that everybody was short of food that year and so the Boy Scouts could help out their communities by considering doing a food drive,” Scott said.
Upon finding that many people were willing to donate, making the drive successful, it became a tradition.
“It did a good job and so we just started doing it every year. And as time went on, we got other groups involved,” Scott said.
Scott’s Troop 64 has continued to organize the event every year since.
In recent years, the drive has collected some 5,000 goods in 2021 and around 3,000 last year.
“We’re just out there to try and help our neighbors who need some help right now,” he said. “This whole program is only for that one reason: to help our neighbors.”
Reach reporter Jen Smith at [email protected].
