ROCKWELL — Doing what they can to help in the fight against food insecurity, Troops 324 and 4324 and Pack 324 are participating once again in the Scouting for Food program.

All three groups meet at Rock Grove Church in Rockwell, and during their Jan. 17 meeting, they prepared 400 bags for placement in the community to be filled with nonperishable food items to be donated to a local food bank.

Prior to placing specially prepared stickers on the bags noting the pertinent information with the program name, dates and times, Ann Barber, scoutmaster of Troop 4324, shared the history of Scouting for Food, telling the group it began in 1985 as a scout’s service project in the St. Louis area.

That scout, Barber said, thought about how people were struggling since it was just after Christmas and cold weather was causing a rise in electric bills. Trying to decide what he could do, “he came up with Scouting for Food, and it blossomed, and Boy Scouts of America decided to adopt that and make it a nationwide program.”

The last Saturday in January, she noted, is the date that most have used to place the bags, and these local troops are doing that as they will go out in the community Jan. 27 to place regular-sized paper grocery bags on porches and ask people to put food in them. Then, they will return the following Saturday to gather them back up, sort the food taking out any damaged or expired items and then deliver it to the Freedom Christian Worship Center Food Bank in Rockwell and proceed to stock the shelves.

This food bank has been the recipient of food from these scouts for multiple years, and Jerry Menster and Pat Flannery, who are in charge of the local food pantry, were on hand at the meeting and shared a little about the ministry and how much help the scouts have given them.

Menster shared that the time they were most impacted by their help was two years ago.

They were getting food on trucks as usual, but noted the amount was small and “we didn’t know from week to week if we were going to have enough, but every week we had enough and a lot of that was from ya’ll that brought it,” he told the scouts and their parents and leaders.

The local food bank serves Rowan County, he said; therefore, through their food donations, they are possibly providing help to neighbors, classmates and relatives, he pointed out.

Families can come to the food bank two times a month noting that they help possibly up to 250 people a month.

Menster said that he and Flannery have been in charge of the food bank at the church for more than 12 years and it helps them to get this food, “but helping the boy scouts is another thing that we like to do,” he shared. “It’s helping the neighborhood. Also, they’re helping the older people in our neighborhood. They learn and we learn, and we all benefit.”

Ryan Smith, scoutmaster of Troop 324 and cubmaster of Pack 324 and a parent of scouts, noted that the three troops have been participating in Scouting for Food for more than 10 years.

Several of the scouts who have participated previously in the project shared the importance of providing food and thus helping the community.

Dale Kepley, senior troop leader of Troop 324, said they are helping people who can’t get food for themselves, and “it shows that the community can band together and help those people that cannot help themselves.”

Leader of Troop 4324 Allie Foreman said that it was “difficult to put into words” being a part of the group that is helping others, but she did say “it feels good, but it’s very difficult at times, but you feel like you’re helping people.”

“It makes me proud to see all of these scouts work so hard to help others,” Smith noted, and “even more excited when they learn all the good they are doing for others. Having a boy in the troop and a girl in the pack, I am honored to be a parent and leader of such a great group of scouts.”

In addition to the scouts, leaders and parents being there, Chad Wells, district executive of the Central North Carolina Council, was on hand for the meeting supporting the kids. Wells oversees both Rowan and Cabarrus counties, he noted.

Before the groups began their task of preparing the bags, Barber pointed out a table filled with food, thanking Leslie Kepley, a scout parent and helper, for bringing it in, using the various items as examples of what could be donated to the food bank. It was then sent with Menster and Flannery as a start to the troops’ Scouting for Food donation. Menster said they could use it all.

Barber noted they hope to supply all of the food groups to the pantry and pointed out proteins like peanut butter in plastic jars, thus unbreakable. 

Pointing out the breakfast foods, she said they have discovered “people who are homeless will come out and actually take a breakfast item and put it into their pocket because they can have that for later.”

Therefore, breakfast bars, toaster pastries or other items such as this are good to donate, along with oatmeal, which can provide something warm for them to have on cold mornings.

Rice and pasta with sauce, individual cans of ravioli, boxes of potatoes, cans of fruits and vegetables are all good and useful items they can use as well. And a big item that they give, she added, is yogurt.

“The term they use when people are hungry is food insecurity,” Barber told them. “That’s pretty bad, it means they’re not getting enough to eat, so we are trying to supplement that. Sometimes, it’s the only food that they get.”

In addition to food donations, people can also give money, which, Menster said, they would take and go to area stores or to Charlotte’s Harvest Foods and purchase food with it.

Comparing the Scouting for Food to an Easter egg hunt, Barber said the event is a great time. 

“You put these bags out and they’re flat. They’re not full or anything and then the following week, we go to these porches and we go, ‘look, they remembered us. There’s a bag’ and we run and get it,” she said.

Last year, she noted, they collected more than 3,000 pounds of food.

Seeing these full bags, Dale Kepley said “it honestly feels kind of good because we are helping people. It feels accomplishing.”

Foreman likewise noted the good feeling seeing the bags full of food as she said, “because then you know you are helping people.”

Menster shared that people tell them how grateful they are for what they receive.

“You are a part of that,” he told the scouts. “We don’t bring it in, we give it out,” he said of he and Flannery, as he told them how much it is appreciated that they bring in the food.

Bringing in the food and assisting “means a lot to the community,” said Leslie Kepley, plus it also “gets the kids involved. It teaches these kids how to do for the community, how to raise and do funds, do food, do whatever, but they do it for the community, not something that they benefit from and so it teaches them life lessons because you never know when you’re going to need it.”

As Menster concluded, he told of a family that had been coming to the food bank for 10 years and he said they received a beautiful letter telling how the food was shared with family needing it, but to please take them off the list as they didn’t need the services of the food bank anymore.

“That’s our goal,” he said, “to help somebody enough so that they can help themselves.”

Serving and helping and being a part of this special scout project “means that we respect everyone in our community and we pull together to make it a safe community and realize that we’re all in this together,” shared Barber, “and it’s an opportunity for us to show a service and being hands and feet as a service.”