Scouts Hope to Repeat Last Year's Record Setting Food Drive

The plastic bag you see smacking in the wind outside your front door didn't come from your neighbor's recycling bin. The bag has a purpose.

The Boy Scouts of America in southeastern Michigan are conducting a food drive and the thin, plastic bags will serve as the receptacles used to feed thousands.

Local troop 1721 of Trenton has gotten behind the cause in a big way. Last year troops from around southeastern Michigan broke their all time record for collecting nearly 400,000 pounds of food.

The troop collected enough food to provide three meals per day for an entire year for 89 families of four according to Troop master Jeff Lynch. That's 389,820 meals.

Lynch said Scouting For Food is scouting's single greatest community impact service project in the area.

"Without Scouting For Food thousands upon thousands of people—kids and adults—will go to bed hungry," Lynch said.

The bags were distributed over the past week and the pick up date is approaching.

Bags will be picked up beginning at 9 a.m. and continue through the day on Saturday, Nov. 12.

All donations in Trenton will be delivered to the Trenton Food Pantry at  where it will be sorted by members of the and made ready for distribution to area residents in need according to Lynch.

"From the first grade Tiger Cub to the 17-year-old Eagle Scout, from the younger sibling to the parents and grandparents, from your friends to your leaders we all need to work together to help each other," Lynch said. "That's what Scouting For Food is about—helping each other and helping your neighbor."