For the Kent Reporter

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) are teaming up with Kent area residents in the fight against hunger.

Local Cub and Boy Scouts on Saturday will disperse door hangers throughout local neighborhoods to ask the community for food donations. If residents want to participate, they should leave donated items on their doorstep the following Saturday, March 30, and the Scouts will return to collect and transport donations to a local food bank.

Through partnerships with more than 50 local food banks, the Scouting for Food drive in Western Washington provides more than 500,000 cans of food annually to needy families.

“The concept of serving other people at all times, as stated in our Scout Oath, is something we emphasize with both the youth and adults in our programs,” said Sharon Moulds, Chief Seattle Council spokesperson. “Scouting for Food is meant to include everyone in the community; you don’t have to be a member of Scouting to help in the fight against hunger.”

Between 1983 and 1985, the average number of households seeking emergency food increased by almost 40 percent. Seventy percent of those seeking help were families with children.

Seeing a need, Scouting for Food was born. In 1988, the first year of collection, one million Scouts nationwide collected 65 million cans of nonperishable food. As the National Good Turn from 1988-1991, Scouting for Food resulted in the largest collection and donation of foodstuffs ever experienced in the United States!

In 2011, the United States Department of Agriculture statistics found that 6.8 million U.S. households, or 5.7 percent, had very low food security. In these “food-insecure” households, normal eating patterns of one or more household members were disrupted and food intake was reduced at times during the year because they had insufficient money or other resources for food. This number is up from 5.4 percent in 2010.

The BSA’s role is to organize the food collection and make arrangements with established community distribution agencies that will warehouse and distribute the food to those in need at no cost. The emphasis is on nonperishable food such as peanut butter, baby formula, complete packaged meals and canned goods such as tuna, chunky soups, stews, meats, fruits and vegetables.