Scouting for Food was this past Saturday November 14th and with the help of Boy Scouts, volunteers, and Second Harvest staff, we were able to collect over 180,000 pounds of food at our Brengle Warehouse in Orlando. Second Harvest Food Bank receives a portion of what Scouting for Food collects in Central Florida. We are grateful to be part of this wonderful event.

The Boy Scouts would bring truck loads of bags they had gathered from the houses in different neighborhoods to our collection sites. Then the sites boxed up the donations for distribution the following Monday.

Photos taken from one of our collection sites:

Photos taken by: Occasional Photo

After the food was collected and boxed up it was sent to our warehouse on Brengle Avenue in Orlando so that our Partner Agencies that have Emergency Food Pantries in the Orange and Seminole Counties could receive the food and distribute to their clients. The following Monday always looks like a caravan all lined up at our docks ready to go fight hunger in their neighborhood.

On Monday, November 16th the food was ready for pick by the agencies.  On a typical day we service about 25 agencies. This past Monday, our warehouse went into overdrive to serve over 164 agencies. We had as many as five agencies every 15 minutes.  Each agency vehicle’s shock absorbers got a workout as vans, trucks, and a couple compact cars were loaded up.

We were also very lucky that we had received a very large shipment of Sweet Potatoes so quite a few of the partner agencies received about a pallet or so to distribute along with the food drive. 

The Thanksgiving holiday is approaching and with food received from the Scouting for Food our Partner agencies will be able to distribute and help more families this season.

Erin Gray
Agency Relations Manager
egray@foodbankcentralflorida.org