FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Joe Mueller, Director of Public Relations
Work: (314) 256-3030 Cell: (314) 603-9983
ST. LOUIS (November 7, 2011)—Children will help feed a growing number of hungry children throughout our region as more than 30,000 Scouts participate in the 27th annual 
“Scouting for Food” canned goods drive in November.
Scouts from throughout the Greater St. Louis Area Council, Boy Scouts of America, will distribute more than one million bags on Saturday, Nov. 12, and return the following Saturday, Nov. 19, to collect the bags filled with canned goods. More than 500 food pantries throughout the region rely on Scouting for Food and the generosity of the community to help stock their shelves before the holiday season and cold winter months. Scouting for Food donations provide up to a four-month supply for some pantries.
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 2011,” 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.
“The strain on the St. Louis Area Foodbank’s network of pantries is reaching an all-time high,” said Frank Finnegan, president and CEO of the St. Louis Area Foodbank. “The group most affected by the need for food assistance is children. Nearly one-fourth of the children in our service territory struggle with hunger. This community has continually stepped up to make the Scouting for Food drive not only the largest in the nation, but one that hundreds of local food pantries depend on to stock the shelves during the holidays and the onset of winter. Given the number of people coming to their doors, I know the food pantries are counting on this year being the most successful drive yet.”
When Scouts in the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County collect the donated food, they take it to one of 46 fire stations where it is sorted and boxed. (Food collected outside of the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County is taken directly to food pantries in those communities.)
“Thousands of Scouts, parents and leaders are ready to work together for an important purpose—feeding the less fortunate in our community,” said Ron Green, Scout Executive of the Greater St. Louis Area Council. “We are providing assistance to those in need, but this drive also teaches young people the value of helping others.”
For the eighth consecutive year, Sunset Transportation, Inc., will transport the food from the fire stations to the St. Louis Area Foodbank. Sunset Transportation will move 55 truckloads of food in cooperation with dozens of truck drivers who donate their time, use their own trucks, and pay for their own fuel. Wells Fargo Advisors is this year’s campaign sponsor.
