Area Scouts to collect food

ONEONTA _ On Saturday and again Nov. 8, more than 1,000 area young people and adults associated with Scouting will mobilize to help eliminate malnutrition and hunger in Otsego, Schoharie and Delaware counties.

Organized by the Otschodela Council, Boy Scouts of America, the 2008 Scouting for Food Good Turn will involve volunteer leaders and parents from the tri-county area in an effort to collect more than 45,000 articles of food.

Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of the Scouting for Food program in the local counties. The program has collected more than a million food items benefiting more than 10,000 families in need throughout the region.

Scouting leaders said they look to continue this service to the local communities for many years to come.

The local appeal is a council project that seeks to ease the food problem faced by many people in the area. Collected food will go to food banks in the tri-county area with enough supplies to last several months.

Scouts will go door-to-door in neighborhoods throughout the three counties Saturday. They will leave a reminder card or bag announcing that on the following Saturday, Nov. 8, they will return to pick up grocery bags filled with food.

Scouts will then gather and box the food for delivery to food banks, churches or other locations, which will distribute food to families in their geographic areas.

Organizers said Mead Westvaco of Sidney, Greenleaf Steel Rule and Die of Schenevus and Price Chopper Supermarkets contributed to the project.