Special to The Leader

Three Rivers Council of the Boy Scouts of America will hold its second annual Scouting for Food campaign to gather non-perishable food items from within a 10-county territory in Southeast Texas for the benefit of the Southeast Texas Food Bank and other local hunger fighting agencies on Saturday, March 5.

Boy Scout units are supporting this large scale food collection by going door-to-door in their communities to solicit non-perishable items such as canned fruits, vegetables, fish, and meats, as well as items like cereal, pasta, and rice.

Boy Scouts will deliver collection bags sponsored by GHX Industrial to homes in portions of Jefferson, Orange, Hardin, Chambers, Jasper, Liberty, Newton, Polk, San Jacinto, and Tyler counties in late February, with most collection bag deliveries occurring on Saturday, Feb. 27. On the morning of Saturday, March 5 those units will return to homes that received a collection bag to retrieve the bags and any food items residents have placed in them.

Most of the donated items will be delivered to the Southeast Texas Food Bank for distribution as part of its provision of food to more than 100 hunger relief agencies spread throughout eight counties of Southeast Texas. Some Scout troops in rural counties will directly deliver food they collect to hunger fighting agencies in their local community.

“Partnerships like this one with the Boy Scouts and GHX Industrial are critical to the Food Bank,” Dan Maher, executive director of the Southeast Texas Food Bank, said. “This is a perfect opportunity to connect community-wide resources like the Boy Scouts to the issue of hunger and teach life lessons which can challenge the Scouts to continue making a difference in their community as they mature into young adult citizens. We are grateful that the Boy Scouts and GHX Industrial both share an understanding of how important it is to reduce hunger here in Southeast Texas.”

One of the goals of the Scouting for Food Drive is to grow its participation each year, engaging more Boy Scout units and delivering collection bags to more residences, so that it eventually becomes one of the area’s largest annual food drives.