This year, more than ever WE NEED YOUR HELP. Food requests at Manna are up over 35% this year (4100 families a month).
With Covid-19 around us, Scouting for Food will be “different” this year.
We will not be distributing bags or stickers that restrict us to a single date, and, with safety paramount in our minds, our methods must change. Any drive must be completed within local and council guidelines, including those governing small group size, glove and mask use, limited contacts, and social distancing.
We would like units to collect food and bring it to our drop off locations on Saturday, November 14 2020. We will have a food truck at Quince Orchard High School as usual, and we are looking into an elementary school location in the Germantown area. We will have a location secured next week. We would like units also to use social media to encourage their neighbors to make drive through donations where we will have the food trucks. Drive through donations have been very successful this year according to the folks at Manna.
There are many ways to collect food and maintain social distancing, like “front yard” collections and drive-through food drives. This is the method that we are suggesting for Scouting For Food 2020! We’re asking units to set up neighborhood collection boxes at Scout residences. Manna will be providing us with about 300 large boxes that people can collect food in at their homes. A simple box or milk crate or RubberMaid Tote will do. We’re asking units to provide their own announcement/fliers for this year that can be placed on/through door handles (simply roll them up and stick them in the handle). Please use social media to reach out for donations! NextDoor, Facebook are two excellent ways to reach out. In addition, we are not limiting collections to one weekend (November 14). Rather we’re encouraging units to collect over a period of time and drop their donations at their local food bank. We are looking into using large empty parking lots, for drop offs ON NOVEMBER 14 ONLY, but again, feel free to extend your collections for more donations.
This year the council will not allow Scouts to solicit donations door-to-door (do not knock on doors asking for donations), and any group sizes should be kept to 6-8 persons, perfect for dens and patrols. We are working with Manna food bank to accept donations directly. Please feel free to contact other area food banks to see if they are willing to accept drop off donations.
More details will be provided next week.
Thanks for all that you do.
–Phil Dennis (Seneca District Scouting For Food Chairman)