Scouts conduct food drive
Information from a landmark study released recently by Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, reports that more than 37 million people, one in eight Americans – including 14 million children and nearly 3 million seniors – receive emergency food each year through the nation’s network of food banks and the agencies they serve. The findings represent a staggering 46 percent increase since the organization’s previously released study in 2006. This year, in response to the need, Boy Scouts of America created Good Turn for America and tied it to its annual “Scouting for Food” drive.
To combat that hunger in the mid-Monongahela Valley, the Greater Pittsburgh Council of the Boy Scouts of America, in partnership with the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania, conducted its 22nd annual Scouting for Food program.
Scouting for Food is the nation’s largest food drive, and the program facilitates food drives across the country to provide meals to the hungry.
The results were overwhelming. Individual donors combined efforts with company initiatives to provide nourishment to those less fortunate in the mid-Monongahela Valley.
Monongahela Valley Hospital participated in the Scouting for Food campaign for years, and the 2010 campaign was no exception. Thanks to the generosity of hospital family members, 11,111 units of food and related items were collected to assist those in need in the mid-Monongahela Valley – a 15-percent increase from 2009, the hospital said. The food collected remains in the mid-Monongahela Valley specifically for the residents of this area.
Employees of Monongahela Valley Hospital have collected more than 310,000 units of food since the first drive in 1987. The healthier the food – such as high fiber cereal, peanut butter, tuna, fruit juice and canned beans – the greater the assigned number of units. This year’s MVH contribution provides nearly $8000 worth of food to residents of the mid-Mon Valley through the local food banks.
This year the leading group for donations was the Center for Fitness and Health at the Mon-Vale HealthPLEX in Rostraver. The staff created fliers and used the Center’s newsletter to get the word out. Between the staff and membership, they donated 1,476 food items, more than 13% of the total donation from MVH. No other department in the health system came close.
“Our members always respond when asked to participate in a charitable cause,” said Christy Erdely, Financial Coordinator for the Center for Fitness and Health. “This year we offered a raffle chance for payment of three months of summer dues to the members who donated to our food drive. Kathleen Alessio, a longtime member, won the raffle,” she said.