Scouts picking up food items Saturday to refill empty food bank

Published 10:07 pm Thursday, January 18, 2007

The Salvation Army is turning away families in need of food because its food center is empty, an official said Thursday.

“The food bank is closed because we’re out of food,” Patricia Hamilton with the Salvation Army said of the building on North Thornton Avenue near the Salvation Army’s offices.

Salvation Army officials are asking Dalton residents to support the Scouting For Food program, a joint project of the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and the Dalton Noon Kiwanis Club.

Last Saturday, the Scouts hung plastic bags on mailboxes and placed them on doorsteps in subdivisions with instructions in English and Spanish so that residents could fill them with nonperishable food. The bags will be picked up this Saturday. Pick up begins at 10 a.m. and participants are asked to put the bags in a visible place near a mailbox or on their porch.

The food will be taken to Propex Fabrics on Shugart Road, sorted by volunteers and delivered to the Salvation Army.

“We’re looking forward to it, because with (the food) we’ll be able to reopen the food center on Monday,” Hamilton said. “The community really needs to support this one because we have a lot of need and we’re not able to serve them.”

The food center is usually open Monday through Friday from 1 to 4 p.m., Hamilton said. The center allows the Salvation Army to supply up to 35 needy families a week with groceries, she said.

“This will be huge for (the Salvation Army),” said Michael Duncan, district executive for the Northwest Georgia Council of the Boy Scouts of America. “We do this once a year to replenish their stock.”

Each year the Scouts haul in some 8-12 palettes of food for the Salvation Army, Duncan said.

The Salvation Army asks that no perishable or frozen food or anything in glass containers be donated. People interested in donating are also asked to check the expiration date on food labels before putting food in the bag.

People who did not get bags can bring canned goods to Propex Fabrics on Saturday or drop food off at the Salvation Army Food Center.

For more information, contact the Boy Scouts retail store on Hamilton Street in Dalton at (706) 272-7111.