How Scouting for Food got started

Published 12:00 am Thursday, February 1, 2018

This year is the 32nd Scouting for Food in our community. I have been asked how it got started.

In 1986, I was a member of the Dalton Kiwanis Club. The club wanted me to organize a youth service project. I contacted local organizations about their needs, and went to a Kiwanis seminar in Atlanta where Kiwanians throughout Georgia reviewed possible projects for their clubs.

At one of our weekly Kiwanis meetings, Stuart McFarland approached me with a suggestion. Stuart was a business leader and a scout leader. He showed me a magazine article about Boy Scouts in St. Louis, Mo., collecting food for the needy.

I told Stuart I would consider it. I also had a couple of other projects in mind. But, at every weekly Kiwanis meeting, Stuart would ask if we were going to do the scout project. He also called me several times about it. He was so enthusiastic and persistent, I decided that would be our youth service project.

When I asked who he thought should be the project chairman, Stuart told me I should be in charge. If I would chair it, he would support me. So, I agreed to be the chairman. We worked closely together for several months. I had the opportunity to get to know one of the finest people I have ever known.

I decided that Scouting for Food would take place the following February 1987, because there were not a lot of community events at that time.

I had several meetings with Boy Scout leaders. Each pack was assigned an area in the community to collect food. Stuart met with the Dalton and Whitfield fire departments, and they agreed to allow area fire stations to be drop-off points. Stuart also had a local company donate food collection bags that scouts would deliver to every home the week before. I assigned members of the Kiwanis Club to man each station.

Stuart and I were returning from a scout meeting when he asked: “What are you going to do with the food we collect?” I said that I wanted to distribute it to various community organizations, but I did not want the same people to go around and get all the food. I wanted it documented in some way. Stuart said that the Salvation Army had a food bank and they kept a record of who got the food. I said if they do that, then we will donate the food we collect to the Salvation Army food bank. And, that is how the Salvation Army got involved.

I met with the Salvation Army and a warehouse was rented to store the collected food.

The local radio stations and The Daily Citizen-News gave us lots of publicity, telling the public that scouts were delivering food collection bags Saturday that were to be filled with canned food, and were to be left on their doorsteps to be picked up the following Saturday.

Stuart offered his office for me to coordinate by phone with Kiwanians assigned to the fire stations. When I left my house the morning of the food collection, heading to the office, I drove around my neighborhood. There was not a single food bag out. I arrived at the office and started checking in with the fire stations. We called back and forth. At 10:30 a.m., there was no activity at any of the fire stations.

Then, the calls came in. We need help, they said … tons of food was arriving at each location. I left and headed to one of the stations. The floor was completely full. And, food was still arriving.

Well, it was a success.

The next year, the Kiwanis Club decided to do another Scouting for Food and I was asked to chair it again.

This time, several ladies who worked at the Salvation Army food bank said the food needed to be sorted before it was stored. So, Kiwanians and other community organizations got involved to sort the food. The fire stations again agreed to take in the collected food. A box company offered to donate boxes to store the sorted food.

Another successful food drive.

The fourth year, I was no longer a member of the Kiwanis Club, but I agreed to chair it again.

Thanks to Stuart McFarland, the members of the Dalton Kiwanis Club, the hard work of local scouts and scout leaders, and the generosity of this wonderful community, thousands of people have been fed.