Steven Young brings a bag of food donations into the St. Paul Church of Christ during the 34th annual Scouting for Food event.
Volunteers slid boxes of food down a makeshift shoot at the St. Paul Church of Christ to fill the food pantry with donations collected from Saturday’s 34th annual Scouting for Food event.
Over 4,000 food items were collected, according to a food pantry coordinator Marsha Gordon. Gordon said the Scouting for Food event is a big help to the pantry, which provides food to the Eudora community all year.
“You’d be amazed about how quickly groceries leave the shelves,” Godon said.
Boy Scout Steven Young said he’s volunteered at the food pantry since the start of the pandemic. He said it’s a great way to do something that helps the community.
“It’s just a place I can go to be helpful,” Young said. “I know what I’m doing here amounts to something good.”
Young said Boy Scout Troop 64 is large enough this year it was able to finish collecting donations in its territory quickly. Young said he decided to go straight to the food pantry and help out with unloading and sorting instead.
John Scott, the Scouting for Food coordinator, said the food pantry coordinators, Gordon and Sue Neustifter, have been doing great work in the community for a long time, and he’s happy to work alongside them in this event.
“It’s great,” Scott said as he dropped off the last donation of the day. “They’ve done a very great thing for the community for many years. We all work together to help the community.”
Gordon said Gene’s Heartland Foods and the Eudora Community Center will accept donations from any Eudora residents who forgot to place their bags on the front porch Saturday morning.
Food pantry volunteers will collect the late donations and calculate the total number of items early next week.
Around 25 volunteers worked to sort food at the pantry and donations were collected by many volunteer groups, including Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, 4-H, EHS Honor Society and the Lions Club.
Gordon Neustifter said it was great to have the event again this spring after its cancelation last year because of the pandemic.
“The community has just been amazing through the pandemic,” he said.
Reach reporter Cami Koons at [email protected].
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