Scouting America’s National Day of Service is tomorrow, and Scouts and Scouters will mobilize for hundreds of community service projects.
This year’s initiative spotlights Scouting for Food, which covers far more than a single day as the Bay-Lakes Council food haul easily proves. Now in its 38th year, this council in eastern Wisconsin expects to donate more than 350,000 pounds of food to more than 80 food pantries from northern Milwaukee suburbs to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
One in seven households in America experiences food insecurity, according to the Food Research & Action Center.
Scouting for Food works to reduce that number, and 2025 statistics prove this organization-wide Good Turn is massive.
In 2025, Scouts and Scouters nationwide conducted 3,813 food drives, turned in 488,729 service hours and collected more than 5.2 million pounds of food.
The Bay-Lakes Council’s effort involves thousands of young people and adult volunteers across 22 counties. It doesn’t happen by simply handing out collection bags and waiting for donations. It requires months of planning, coordination with community partners and a commitment to improving the process every year.
For Tammi Thurow, the council’s senior district executive and Scouting for Food coordinator, planning for the next drive begins almost as soon as the previous one ends.
“We always start talking about it and what can we change to make it better, make it easier on our staff, make it easier on the volunteers, make it easier on the youth,” Thurow says. “A big part of what we do is keep in contact with pantries year-round.”
That year-round approach is essential because of the sheer size of the council.
Bay-Lakes Council covers nearly 11,000 square miles. Organizing a food drive across that territory involves more than 5,000 young people and approximately 3,000 adult volunteers.
To keep the workload manageable, the council maintains a month-by-month planning spreadsheet. Staff members store planning documents and resources in a shared OneDrive folder, allowing easy access to information like pantry and partner contact information.
The collection itself follows a straightforward two-week schedule in October.
During the first weekend, Scouts distribute collection bags throughout their communities. Residents fill the bags with nonperishable food, and Scouts return the following Saturday morning to collect the donations and deliver them to designated drop-off locations. Approximately 90% of the food comes directly from neighborhood collections.
Additional donations can be dropped off at participating grocery stores or local food pantries.
Community partnerships make the difference
One of the keys to the project’s success is the growing involvement of the food pantries themselves.Rather than simply waiting for donations to arrive, many pantry partners now help promote the drive, recruit volunteers and work alongside Scouts during collection day.
In Green Bay, for example, approximately 16 pantries gather at Lambeau Field — the home of the Green Bay Packers — to help unload, count, weigh and distribute the donations.
“The pantries are wanting to be more and more involved,” Thurow says. “So instead of them just receiving the food, they’re helping us advertise for it. They are getting volunteers to go out with the kids, going out into the communities and helping.”
That cooperation also addresses the challenge of covering such a large geographic area.
Getting the word out
Media outreach is another important component. The council uses television, radio, press releases and social media to remind residents when bags will arrive and when donations need to be placed outside for collection.Colin Earl, the council’s director of development, recommends contacting news outlets approximately 10 to 14 days before an event. That gives reporters time to schedule coverage and helps build awareness before the collection begins.
The council also looks for corporate and foundation partners to help underwrite the costs. Printing and procuring approximately 200,000 collection bags alone can cost about $20,000.
Earl sees the project as an opportunity for councils to demonstrate Scouting’s value to potential supporters.
“This is a great platform we can use for potential supporters,” Earl says. “We can reach out to them and say, ‘Here’s what we’re doing, and your support can help us keep it going.’ Depending on the business or foundation, I can also use this project to peel back the onion and learn about their mission and values.”
The National Day of Service is part of Impact365, Scouting America’s year-round commitment to service. Participation is flexible for all councils. Some councils may choose different projects to meet local needs, and others may serve on a different day. What matters most is serving others.
No matter how or when your council serves, be sure to log your hours, including hours contributed by non-members. Every hour counts and helps tell the story of Scouting’s impact in communities across the country. Learn more at http://www.scouting.org/service.
The Bay-Lakes Council uses Lambeau Field as one of its main drop off points in its Scouting for Food effort.
Photos courtesy of the Bay-Lakes Council
Advertisement