Scouts Collect 42K Food Items for New Lenox Pantries
Patch and other volunteers helped sort mountains of food Monday at the New Lenox Township office. New Lenox scouts collected about 42,000 food items to donate to the three local food pantries.
Every year in New Lenox, the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts execute an incredible effort to help feed local families.
On Monday, I got to see the result of their work in action. I got to volunteer at the New Lenox Township food pantry along with many others to check for expired food, sort certain types of food and move boxes around.
There were 60 volunteers who signed up to help sort the food—and there was A LOT of food. According to food drive director Bill Thomson, the scouts collected about 42,000 food items this year.
That's slightly down from last year's record haul of about 48,000 items, but still an incredible amount that will help feed many people in the community. Especially when you see it stacked in boxes floor to ceiling, and especially when you look at the pantry shelves and they're fully stocked.
The food will be split evenly among the three local food pantries:
Altogether, the pantries help feed more than 2,000 people in New Lenox. To pull that off, it requires about 35,000 food items every month. The annual Scouts' food drive will certainly help.
"That frees up money that's donated to go toward other food items that go quicker," said Kathie Johnson, family services director at New Lenox Township.
About 400 Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Brownies and Girl Scouts are participating in the food drive, said Bill Thomson, director of the Scouts' food drive. The Scouts expect to hand out 9,500 bags, which were donated by Central Grocers, Inc.
"The program has been great; it helps our community and the kids enjoy participating in this," Thomson said in a previous article.
Gary Cheney, the director of the annual ShareFest volunteerism effort, led the group of volunteers on Monday and said he's always looking for new ways to help feed local families.
READ MORE
Person of the Year: Bill Thomson, Food Drive Organizer
In This article
-
New Lenox Township
1100 S Cedar Rd, New Lenox, IL -
New Life Church
500 Gougar Rd, New Lenox, IL -
Catholic Community of St. Jude
241 W 2nd Ave, New Lenox, IL -
-
Kimberly
8:15 am on Tuesday, November 13, 2012
GREAT pictures! The total might be down from last year, but its still very impressive the amount of food items that were donated.
T
9:15 am on Tuesday, November 13, 2012
The flyer attached to the bag very learnt stated that if your bag was not picked up by 3 pm, to email your address to the email attached and someone would be sent out there. Hundreds of children trying to do good for others in need spent hours upon hours collecting and sorting canned goods. Mistakes happen and inthe spirit of giving, I find it appalling that someone calls volunteers obscene names when they are spending days of their time only trying to do their best to help others.
T
9:16 am on Tuesday, November 13, 2012
*the bag very "clearly" stated...
Michael Sewall
10:48 am on Tuesday, November 13, 2012
A couple of comments have been deleted because of the use of profanity and the subsequent quoting of that profanity. Keep it civil, people.
Amy
12:15 pm on Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Kudos to the Scouts (Boys and Girls), volunteers, and everyone who donated. It shows what a great community we live in that so many people care enough to do good for others!
Melanie Sanders
1:34 pm on Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Our team from Jewel Osco on Laraway Road had a wonderful time helping out. We are thankful for the opportunity to participate and are thrilled to be working with The New Lenox Food Pantry through the holiday season and beyond. Keep up the great work everyone!
Kristie Camfield
9:14 pm on Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Very proud of our scouts!!!!