Contact: Joe Mueller, Director
of Public Relations
Work: (314) 256-3030 Cell: (314)
603-9983
What: Scouts
will collect canned goods and other non-perishable food items during the 28th
annual Scouting for Food Good Turn. Last Saturday, Scouts distributed more than 1
million plastic grocery bags throughout eastern Missouri and southern Illinois.
Scouts, parents and leaders will return to those same areas to collect
the bags filled with food items. Canned
goods are sorted and boxed at 42 fire stations throughout the City of St. Louis
and St. Louis County.
Sunset Transportation will
donate trucks, drivers and logistical assistance to transport more than 50 truckloads
of food to the St. Louis Area Foodbank in
Bridgeton, Mo. Food collected outside
the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County is taken directly to food pantries.
Who: Jim
Williams, council board member and chief executive officer of Sunset
Transportation, will help Scouts, parents and leaders as they bring in
collected food to Engine House No. 36, one of 42 fire stations throughout the
metropolitan area serving as collection sites.
More than 30,000 Scouts and thousands of additional leaders and parents are
expected to participate.
When: 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday,
Nov. 17. (Scouts will begin collecting
food at 10 a.m. on Saturday
and continue into the afternoon.
Depending on the weather and volume of donated food, the drive should
conclude with all food packaged and delivered to the St. Louis Area Foodbank by
6 p.m. on Saturday.)
Where: Engine
House No. 36, St. Louis
Fire Department, 5000 S.
Kingshighway Blvd. (at Christie Blvd.) (2.4 miles south of
Interstate 44)
Why:
As unemployment
rates remain high and challenging economic conditions persist, many pantries
report an unprecedented amount of requests for food. The demand for food isn’t isolated in urban
areas. A recent report from the
Brookings Institution found that 80 percent of suburban nonprofits are seeing
families with food needs more often than one year prior. The St.
Louis Area Foodbank
and Feeding
America, the
nation’s largest hunger relief organization, recently released a study, “Map the Meal Gap: Child Food
Insecurity,” that
revealed 172,000 children in our region are struggling with hunger. Nearly one in four children in our area
experience food insecurity—they do not have enough nutritionally adequate food
for an active, healthy life.
More than 500 food pantries
throughout the region have grown to rely on Scouting for Food and the
generosity of the community to help stock their shelves before the holiday
season and the cold winter months.
Scouting for Food donations provide up to a four-month supply of food
for some pantries.
