Lemont Scouts' food drive delivers big to Lemont food pantries

Lemont Scouts completed the food drive they started the week earlier by revisiting neighborhoods to retrieve donations. Scouts retrieved donations from hundreds of homes then gathered to combine, sort, and weigh the food. The results were much more than expected...donations totaled 7,027 lbs. of food.

After the donations were collected and weighed, scouts repacked a caravan of vehicles and brought the 3.5 tons of food to the food pantries at Lemont United Methodist Church and Bethany Lutheran Church. Donations exceeded the shelves at both pantries before everything could be unloaded. The remaining 1,150 lbs of donations will make it to the shelves of the Lemont High School food pantry.

The event did not go off without a hitch...there was some confusion about the pickup date, others that forgot to place donations out in time, and some donations were simply missed. So, the scouts took to the streets again the next day to re-check neighborhoods for donations. Being that this was the inaugural year in Lemont for the event, organizers were hesitant to overextend the scouts. With the gained insight from this year's event, organizers hope to cover even more neighborhoods and to partner with more scouting units next year.

Boy Scout Troop 229 hosted the event with additional scouts from Cub Scout Pack 249 and Girl Scout Troops 70167, 75480, 75569, 75626, and 75700. The scouts participated in the annual Boy Scouts of America food drive called 'Scouting For Food' (SFF). SFF has been an annual endeavor of the BSA nationwide, and this is the first time the program has been brought to Lemont.

Over the prior weekend, scouts covered a number of neighborhoods in Lemont, placing thousands of grocery bags at the doorsteps of homes. What makes this food drive unique is that the scouts make it easy for donations as they bring the food drive to the homeowner. Attached to the bags were instructions that if the homeowner wished to donate, they simply needed to fill those grocery bags with non-perishable foods and leave the bag on their porch at the specified time—the scouts then return to pick up the donations.

The food drive is normally scheduled this time of the year so that food pantries can be better stocked for the holidays. Food pantry managers were extremely pleased that the pantries were overfilled. Many Lemont residents complimented and thanked the scouts for the service to our community.

The organizers wish to thank everyone who donated to make this year a success.