Scout Day at the Food Bank

Pack 380 was represented by Scout Ryan from Den 5 and Scouts David and Ethan from Den 1 at Scout Day at the Food Bank.  The food bank that we visited was the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano located on Nelson Avenue in Concord which has been in operation since 1979.  This is the same food bank where what's collected during Scouting for Food is delivered.

Apparently, Scouting for Food was to be a national scouting one-time "good turn" in 1988.  Instead it turned into an annual event.  Last year, Scouting for Food turned in 165,000 pounds of food in one day.  The record for most food collected was 204,000 pounds in 2006.  This food helps the food bank make it through the holidays.  Last year, the food bank distributed 26,000 Thanksgiving baskets through various agencies.

We'll be placing door hangers on November 12 in the neighborhood around Woodside Elementary.  The following Saturday, November 19, will be the big day when we go around the neighborhood to collect food left out on doorsteps.

The food bank does the collecting of food but relies on other agencies to get the food distributed to needy families.  They sometimes have needy families that come to the food bank warehouse, but they are not able to distribute food directly.  They are starting a food card system of some kind to deal with this situation.

Other fun facts that we learned:

• The warehouse can have up to 1.5 million pounds of food at one time on-hand.
• They turn over the food five or six times in one year with this amount of food equal to the amount of food that can fill up about 70 train cars.
• The food bank serves about 132,000 people each month.  This is more than the population of Concord.
• The food bank also hands out toys, bicycles and other items for kids.
• One of their unusual donations was a very large shipment of M&M peanuts.
• Another memorable donation was a very large shipment of stuffed animals.
• They have been able to cut back on how much they spend on electricity by installing $700,000 of solar panels on their roof.
• They have very large drive-in refrigerators that they keep at about 40 degrees.  We got to walk into two of these.
• They also have a very large freezer that they keep at something like 7 degrees below zero.  We got to walk into this one too.

This Scout Day at the Food Bank was the first time for the event.  They had four stations for us:

1. A tour of the food bank
2. A station where we made a banner to advertise Scouting for Food (food pick-ups are scheduled for November 19)
3. A classroom session where we learned about the people that the food bank helps
4. A chance for us to pack boxes of plums that came from a farm

Hopefully, they'll have this event again and more of our pack will be able to visit again!