Introduction
Scouting for Food began in 1988 as a national good turn for America and has continued ever since.
Flyers are distributed to houses in local neighborhoods by the cub scouts of Pack 680 on the first Saturday in November. People are asked to fill shopping bags with non-perishable food and left out on their doorstep or curb by 9:00 am on the second Saturday, when they are picked up by the boy scouts of Troop 680.
Food we collect benefits the Alexandria community. A majority of food at local shelters – many thousands of pounds – is provided by the Scouting for Food Program, and food banks are reporting dwindling supplies and more clients than ever because of the current economy. The flyers are distributed by Pack 680, and bags of food are collected by Troop 680 to go directly to UCM on Fordson Road.
Scouting for Food is one of our most important activities and the single largest community service project BSA does each year. It is not complicated, but it’s possible to mess it up. Since we interact with the community, it’s important to get it right.
Logistics
Pack/Troop 680 has almost 2,600 homes divided among 4 main areas.
Click the names for a PDF file. Click the thumbnail images for a larger image. House count is in parentheses.
| Area A: Popkins (768) |  |
| Area B: Stoneybrooke (1205) – Vantage (514) – Stoneybrooke (247) – Woodstone (444) |  |
| Area C: Mt Vernon W (294) |  |
| Area D: Mt Vernon E (286) |  |
Dens make their own plans to meet, assign streets, and pass out flyers. Some gather with hot chocolate and donuts- it can be fun and enjoyable to get outside on a Saturday morning (or another time of your choosing).
Exceptions to the map are houses on Mount Vernon Memorial Highway and Old Mill Road – it’s too dangerous. Parts of the Mount Vernon and Popkins areas may have just a few houses, but they’re challenging because of the distances involved. Stoneybrooke has lots of pipe stems up large hills, which we also visit.
Flyer bundles are 100 each. These are normally passed out at the October pack meeting. Do not leave without your flyers.
Guidelines
- Do not allow families to skip this event. This is the only event where we ask for 100% participation. If too many people skip, it is physically taxing on the scouts and can potentially extend into hours of darkness.
- Be prepared for flyer shortages. Someone will be short a couple of flyers and will need to get them from somebody who has leftovers.
- Pick a time when most people can distribute flyers together at the same time so you can fix flyer shortages more easily. All flyers must be distributed by Sunday afternoon.
- Attach flyers securely to each door. Attach it to glass if possible. If it falls off, it will look like trash, and that house will not know about the food drive.
- Never let Scouts go out of sight or into people’s houses. Watch for traffic.
- Do not ring doorbells. If asked what he’s doing, each scout should know what to say. “The Boy Scouts are letting people know about our annual Scouting for Food food drive. If you wish to participate, please place a bag filled with non-perishable food on your doorstep next Saturday by 9am.”
- Do not skip any streets. People will pick up food next week, and they expect we do every street on the map. Also it can mean hundreds of pounds of lost food for people who need it.
- Have a check-out plan. People should not just go home once their assigned street is done because it’s possible some other poor Scout was stuck with too much to do.
- Have a way to communicate during the event. A group text works great.
- Record attendance, service hours, and distance hiked. For service hours we also need to know adults and sibling participants.
- Dress in full class A including blue pants (green for Webelos). Dress and appearance should be as good as possible.
Click here for a Google Maps link of Cub Scouts Pack 680 Distribution Areas.
Click here for a Google Maps link to the Colonial District SFF map.
An ancient list of den assignments by neighborhood and streets (as the source document for our den assignments) may be viewed here.