Last weekend, members of the local Bothell Boy Scouts troop 622 successfully completed a food drive at the local Fred Meyers on Bothell-Everett Highway.
Through their hard work and effort, several boys from the local troop braved the rain and cold to collect an estimated 3,500 pounds of food for donations during two days.
With six hours on Saturday and around three hours on Sunday, the boys brought in enough food to help around 180 households during the next month.
“Its a testament to the community and, as we come up on the holidays, how important it is to help out those less fortunate than ourselves,” said Andy Connor, parent and committee member for troop 622.
As part of the Boy Scouts ‘Citizenship in the Community’ merit badge, these scouts created the idea of a food drive at a local retailer.
“The timing, being the first of the month was, I think, very fortuitous because it really worked out well,” Connor said. “There was so much food that [the Woodinville Storehouse] couldn’t weigh it.”
The Woodinville Storehouse Food Bank will organize and then release the food to needy families within the community.
“It goes really fast,” said Della Haug, director of the Woodinville Storehouse. “A lot of food banks are struggling [for donations].”
According to Haug, the food brought in by the Boy Scouts will last approximately a month – helping some of the 50 households a week through the food bank.
“We are very thankful to the Boy Scouts [for] this additional blessing,” Haug said.
This food drive is just one of many that the Boy Scouts do throughout the year. The next drive will be starting in the next several weeks for the holiday season. The Scouts will leave a notice about their door-to-door food donations pickup called ‘Scouting for Food’ during the coming weeks.
“With the success of this event, I think this will be something we continue to do once a quarter,” Connor said. “We haven’t decided yet how often, but just the opportunity to give food back to the people who need it [and] the success we had over the weekend proves that its a good thing we need to keep going.”
