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SALT LAKE CITY — Warmer temperatures don't mean hunger and poverty issues in Utah, but they do mean donations to the Food Bank often go down. Boys across the state are gearing up to go Scouting for Food this Saturday, March 21. The annual food drive teaches Scouts important lessons about serving their communities.l
The spirit of giving inspires a group of Taylorsville Cub Scouts to run from house to house this week reminding their neighbors that the Scouting for Food drive is less than a week away. The troop leader yells, "Who is excited to go put the hangars on doors so people will donate food?" In unision, the boys scream back, "Me!"
Ten-year-old Cub Scout Dylan Harris says, "It's a really neat feeling. It's nice to do this."
The feeling spreads throughout the group of boys.
"I'm really excited to do it because I'm helping people — other people," says 8-year-old Cub Scout Benjamin Lee.
The boys are also helping the planet. This spring, the annual food drive is going green, no more shopping bags left at your door. Ginette Bott is the chief development officer at the Utah Food Bank.
"This year, you'll have a hangar," Bott said. "It's a door hangar that will remind you to use any bag or container you have at home, and place your product out on the porch by 9 a.m."
The idea is very simple.
"When we put those on the door, then people can put out food for other people, so then nobody will be hungry," says Harris.
And Utah's 55,000 Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts are certainly doing their part to put non-perishable foods on pantry shelves. In 2014, they brought in 1.6 million pounds of food — enough to feed 1.3 million people statewide.
"Last year, our boys were able to go down and sort the food and I think they were surprised at how much food gets donated and the need for food," says Scoutmaster Tyson Kesler.
Boy Scout Tyler Hanson, 13, was amazed by the effort, saying, "After you go home and your feet are tired from walking door to door and stuff, I just feel like wow, I did something good for the whole planet."
These Scouts are especially focused on their own corner of the planet. "I'm helping other people eat and I like to eat, so yes," says 10-year-old Cub Scout Jacob Lee.
The boys know there are friends and classmates that need the food.
"The Scouts are saying, 'I do know kids in my class who are hungry, I know families in our area that are struggling.'" Bott said.
These are families that are struggling to put food on the table. Right now, one in five Utah children aren't sure where their next meal will come from. Almost half a million in our state are at risk of missing a meal today — that's 16 percent of the population.
"Awareness and education are the two most important tools we have to fight hunger in Utah," Bott said.
Utah's Scouting programs are doing their part to educate and make these young men aware of the state's hunger problems and how they can help eliminate them. Joy Sorenson is a Webelos leader.
"They learn the service of giving and what it means when someone has less than what they have," Sorenson said.
In fact, the food drive supports the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts' mission to serve.
"It's the Scout slogan, I believe, that it says, 'Do a good turn daily' and when you give all that food to all those people that don't have any, you feel good inside and you did a good turn daily." Hanson said.
Scoutmaster Kesler says, "It's a great feeling to go and serve someone else and that's something that we try to teach in the Scouting program." They are lessons the Scouts are passing on to members of their community who still haven't gotten the message about hunger.
"In this economy, it's kind of hard to give, but like we encourage people to help people who need help," says 14-year-old Boy Scout Trevor Noble. 10-year-old Cub Scout Damien Curley agrees, saying, "It makes me feel good about the people that are being helped right now."
