Scouting For Food

You are incredible!

The information is mostly in and you did an amazing Scouting For Food job on November 12.

YOU COLLECTED 379,606 POUNDS OF FOOD! Tremendous!

Here is the amount of food turned in by district across the council. This information is close to what each district actually collected, but not exact.  Many units turn their food in at a closer collection site than the one their district staffs. For example, some northern Renaissance and western Sunrise units turn their food in at the North Star collection site at Universal Mall at 12 Mile/Dequindre and I know the Chippewa Central collection site stayed open an extra 45 minutes to accommodate an Ottawa unit.  There is no way to track this cross-district food donations, so the actual amount of food each district collected could be tweaked. These totals also include food donated by units to specific food banks.

Chippewa District	119,590 pounds (3 collection sites)		Mahican District	51,680 pounds (3 collection sites)
North Star District	37,099 pounds (2 collection sites)		Ottawa District	22,066 pounds (1 collection site)
Pon-Man District	12,488 pounds (2 collection sites)		Renaissance District	8,991 pounds (1 collection site)
Sunrise District	75,644 pounds (2 collection sites)		Sunset District	43,898 pounds (3 collection sites)
Waterford Center	318 pounds (no report from Dauch Center)		x-Huron District	7,832 pounds

While this year's collection is less than last year's 392,725 pounds, when everything is taken into account, this was a fantastically successful food drive. 

• The southeast Michigan economy is still rebounding
• Several thousand families have had to relocate from southeast Michigan to other parts of the country
• We have about 1,250 less Scouts and Venturers registered in GLC than a year ago

That's a lot of huge roadblocks you overcame to collect over 379,000 pounds of food. You collected enough food to feed over 86 families of four for an entire year!

From Sunrise to Sunset, from Ottawa to Chippewa, from North Star to Pon-Man, from Renaissance to Mahican, you did your Good Turn. So many families in our area (some might be your friends, your neighbors, your fellow church members, your classmates, or your fellow Scouting families) need the food you collected to put food on the table for their children.

As my family was saying grace during dinner on Thanksgiving Day, I added a prayer for all of you and for all of the people - literally thousands of people - Scouting For Food helped. Without you giving of your time to make Scouting For Food a success, many people would not have a Thanksgiving Dinner. Many will not have a Christmas Dinner. Many would start 2012 with an empty pantry and hungry children. Many would lose all hope.

Feel good about what you and your scouts did. You all made a difference in the lives of countless people. Scouting For Food is the single most important service project we (the Boy Scouts of America) conducts. From the youngest Tiger Cub to the oldest Eagle Scout to each and every Venturer, we all worked together to help our neighbor.

Thanks and God Bless You,
Yours in Scouting,
Dave Pranger
2011 Great Lakes Council Scouting For Food Chair