Scouting for food brings in a bonanza

Brisk activity the morning of March 21 delivered a rich bonanza of donations to benefit the Waseca Area Food Shelf. After delivering notices of their annual “Scouting for Food” initiative to homes all over Waseca across the past few weeks, area scouts scoured the town for donations left on doorsteps, collected them, and brought them to a first-stop gathering at Grace’s Garage. 

 

Cindy Kolander, executive director of the Waseca Area Food Shelf, explained, “As soon as everything is sorted we’ll know how much we collected. We don’t weigh it here at Grace’s Garage, we have the proper scales over at the food shelf and we’ll weigh it there. But I would say we have around 2,000 pounds collected. We won’t know the actual number till later in the week. We have also gotten cash and check donations, at least a few hundred dollars worth.”

 

Kolander expressed gratitude to the Scouts and volunteers for the annual drive, mentioning it is especially helpful that it takes place during “Fight Hunger Month,” when the organization Minnesota FoodShare supplements donations.

 

Adult and youth volunteers were carrying not only totes and bags full of food, but also bags of toilet paper and cleaning products. Said Scout Leader Nicole Busse, “We have been handing out flyers and putting notes on doors all over town for weeks now. We have all of Waseca mapped out and the kids got an early start today with their collections and the parents doing the driving. We’re not just looking for food, we have also asked for paper products like for school, baby formula, baby diapers, tissue paper and other toiletries. With this 70-degree weather we couldn’t have asked for a prettier day.”

 

Becky Petsinger, one of the event’s organizers, summarized the day’s schedule: “Usually our collection goes through noon, then we’ll finish sorting everything and finish up. We have one active scout from troop 1085, at least eight kids from Troop 85 and around 20 members from the Cub Scouts helping and volunteering their time. We also get some of the parents sprinkled in to help with driving and heavy lifting.” As she said that there were children being children everywhere, some were loud, some were quiet but they were all happy and laughing, Petsinger continued, “ These kids are developing a sense of ownership over this; they get that feeling of community service and that changes attitudes towards town pride as they get older. But it hasn’t just been the people that are here today that have been helping, the whole town of Waseca has been kicking in so much by way of food and cash donations. Please, if you know any children who might be interested in Scouting, get the word out, they could always use new members!”   

 

All scouts in Waseca would like to thank VFW post 1216, Austin, MN, the Wow Zone in Mankato and the United Way Partner Agency and New Country Minnesota 100.5 for all scouting related updates.