ST. LOUIS — Coronavirus prevented St. Louis area Boy Scouts from carrying out their annual blue bag Scouting for Food Drive, earlier this month.
As a result, organizations like the St. Louis Area Food Bank are down as much as 700,000 pounds of food for food pantries that serve an ever-increasing population. That’s how much the scouts annual pre-holiday food drive provides for the food bank.
Every good Scout has a plan “B.”
“The first way to give is text ’scoutfood’ to 91999 and you can give as much, financially, as you see fit. The second way to give is to drop off non-perishable food items at many area locations including Lion’s Choice and Lou Fusz,” Suzie Voss, with Greater St. Louis Area Boy Scouts said.
“Before the pandemic we were distributing 3.1 million meals every month. Since the pandemic we’ve jumped up to more than 5 million per month,” St. Louis Area Food Bank Director Meredith Knopp said.
Knopp said the food bank supports people in 26 Missouri and Illinois counties.
“This additional effort on the part of the scouts is a game-changer,” said Knopp. “And it provides so much hope. What you saw in our warehouse today will not be enough to sustain us for even the next month.”
The scouts have more than 200 drop off locations. For more information, visit their website, stlbsa.org.