SCOUTING FOR FOOD BENEFITS LOCAL FOOD BANKS

Canned food collected during last year's Scouting for Food drive supplied the pantry at the Gibson Recovery Center for 11 months. The aim this year is to collect enough food to keep the shelves filled for an entire year.

The Gibson Recovery Center is one of six local food pantries to receive canned goods from the annual food drive that takes place over two weekends in November.

In addition to the Gibson Center, Cape Girardeau food banks participating are Salvation Army, FISH and the Safe House for Women. In Jackson, participating food banks are the Jackson Ministerial Alliance and the Jackson Senior Center.

Scouts will be delivering about 38,000 plastic bags door-to-door Nov. 14. During the week, people are asked to fill the bags with canned food items. Scouts will return to the same neighborhoods on Nov. 21 to collected the filled bags.

Chairman for this year's Scouting for Food drive is Howard Meagle of KFVS-TV 12.

"We have a system, an organized map of the area," Meagle explained. "We have laid out grids for our packs and troops to use in collecting the food."

Scouts throughout eastern Missouri will be conducting similar drives on the same day. In all, some 30,000 Scouts will be collecting food.

Last year, the Shawnee District in Cape Girardeau, Bollinger, Perry, Scott and Stoddard counties, collected 35,000 cans of food. In the St. Louis Council, 1.8 million cans of food were collected.

All the food was donated to food banks in the areas where food was collected, explained Tom Turpin, district scout executive.

The timing of the event coincides with the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. And directors of the food pantries say donations are needed.

The Jackson Senior Center distributes food once a month. In September, 9,000 pounds of food was given to 117 families.

Dena Pehlman, director of the Safe House, said her agency uses donated food in two ways. Some food is used to prepare meals for the women and children who stay at the Safe House shelter.

Food is also available to women as they venture out on their own.

"The ladies know food is available," Pehlman said. "That helps them put one of their worries aside and channel their energies to something else."

For information about the drive, call the Boy Scout office at (573) 335-3346.