'We All Help Each Other': Scouting For Food Honored In Alexandria

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Every year, youth with Boy Scouts of America will go around Alexandria to put out food collection bags for its Scouting for Food drive. This year, the initiative by Boy Scouts of America’s Colonial District was honored by Alexandria City Council for helping food banks like ALIVE.

This is the 35th year Scouting for Food will happen in the Alexandria area. During the weekend of Oct. 28, scouts will leave notes on doorsteps around neighborhoods in Alexandria, encouraging donations to Scouting for Food. Residents are encouraged to leave bagged donations on their doorstep by 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 4, when scouts will pick up donations.

The food drive is held before Thanksgiving to help food banks stock up before food assistance demand increases for the holidays.

Councilmember Alyia Gaskins presented the proclamation to the scouts and scout leaders, who gathered in City Council chambers for the recognition.

"This proclamation is particularly meaningful to me as somebody who grew up in a family that struggled regularly with hunger and food insecurity and knows what it's like to open the fridge over and over again and not see anything to eat in it," said Gaskins. "So I thank you for the work you do every day, for each of you, at this age, even giving so much of your time to make sure that nobody in your community, not a friend, not a neighbor, not a parent goes without food to eat."

City Council's proclamation recognized Scouting for Food's partnership with ALIVE, a nonprofit that provides food and other assistance for Alexandrians in need. Jennifer Ayers, executive director of ALIVE, said the scouts' food collections help their neighbors put food on the table.

"I just want to make sure you know how important it is, that what you're doing here is learning how to be good leaders and good citizens and that we have collective impact, and that means that we all help each other," said Ayers. "When we all help each other, the people who leave this stuff on the stoop for you to pick up and you come and pick it up, we're creating a really good and healthy positive community where people are good to each other."

Rolf Blank, president of ALIVE's board of directors, noted ALIVE is made up of 50 member congregations and over 1,000 monthly volunteers. Since the start of the pandemic, Blank said ALIVE helps over 7,000 families with food each week.

"This is a really important program. The city has supported us immensely, and so have our citizens," said Blank. "Our donations are actually up since the pandemic, so it's a plus working with this program."

Most needed products for the food drive include canned protein (tuna, salmon, chicken, peanut butter), soups and stews (beef stew, chili, meat-based soups), 100 percent fruit juices (all sizes), grains (pasta, whole grain pasta, rice, brown rice, boxed macaroni and cheese), cereals (multi-grain, low sugar cereals, oatmeal), canned vegetables, canned fruits, condiments and hygiene products (diapers, toilet paper, tissues, soap, toothpaste).

As an alternative to bagged donations, online donations can be provided during October. Residents whose donations were not picked up can contact colonial@ncacbsa.org until Nov. 11. Donations can also be delivered to the ALIVE! Food Warehouse at 801 South Payne St., from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursdays and 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Saturdays.

The Boy Scouts of America's Colonial District covers troops in the City of Alexandria, Alexandria addresses in Fairfax County, Mount Vernon and Lorton.

Patch has partnered with Feeding America since 2020 to help raise awareness in our local communities of hunger, a persistent national problem exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Feeding America, which supports 200 food banks and 60,000 local meals programs across the country, estimates that nearly 34 million people, including 9 million children — about 1 in 6 Americans — are living with food insecurity. This is a Patch social good project; Feeding America receives 100 percent of donations. Find out how you can donate in your community or find a food pantry near you.