Scouts throughout North Texas traveled through their neighborhoods last Saturday, collecting donated food items in the 24th Annual Scouting for Food Drive. Here in East Dallas, hundreds of Scouts in the Tejas Caddo District collected nearly 28,000 food items. Some of the collected food went to the Disciples of Trinity (DOT) center on Live Oak Street in Lakewood, and some went to the Wilkinson Center. The majority of the collection went to White Rock Center of Hope and should provide three to four months’ worth of food for local families.

Rick Franco and Ragan Broyles were the adult co-chairs for Tejas Caddo District’s event. Units in the White Rock Lake area have been involved with Scouting for Food since its inception in 1988. It is a massive effort of organization and legwork. Each unit—including Cub Scout Packs, Boy Scout Troops and Venture Crews—was assigned a geographical territory to distribute bright yellow food bags to each residential doorstep on February 11. A week later, Scouts returned to pick up the bags filled with donations of nonperishable food items. Then cars, vans and trucks took the loads of sacks to the receiving station.

The organization and manpower requirements were equally massive at White Rock Center of Hope. Boy Scouts who are members of the Order of the Arrow service unit unloaded all the deliveries and began the process of sorting and storing items. Other Scouts as well as volunteers from local churches sorted the items into boxes and plastic tubs that were labeled for soups, beans, corn, meats—virtually every kind of canned or boxed good imaginable. During the course of the day, some 23,000 food items were received and sorted. Another 4,000 or so Scouting for Food items are expected to be delivered in the next several days.

Ted Beechler, executive director of White Rock Center of Hope, beamed with gratitude at the huge supplies of food. The Center, which is a community coalition of civic organizations, businesses, schools, churches and individuals, ministers to approximately 7,000 families in the White Rock Lake area. In addition to food supplies, the Center provides clothing, school supplies, financial aid and other services.

The Tejas Caddo District formed in 2011 by merging the old White Rock and White Buffalo Districts. The new district comprises 65 units, with approximately 2,000 Scouts plus adult Scouters. John Thompson is the District Chairman of the Tejas Caddo District and Adam Hunter is the District Executive.

Scouting for Food is the largest single-day food collection event in Dallas and one of the largest in the nation. In 2011 Packs, Troops and Crews participated in Scouting for Food and collected 444,894 items of food. Tom Thumb is the official sponsor of the 24th annual Scouting for Food Drive. Media sponsors for the 2012 food drive are The Dallas Morning News and WFAA. Since its inception in 1988, this food drive has collected more than 9.7 million cans of food for North Texas food banks.