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Community Corner

Scouting for Food Donations

Mineola boy scouts collect food to donate to the needy.

“Scouting for food, please make a donation on the way out,” the members of Cub Scout Pack 246 said to customers walking into Stop and Shop at the Country Glen Shopping Center in Carle Place.

In an effort to collect food for the needy, the Mineola Boy Scouts of Troop 45 and the Cub Scouts of Pack 246 handed out flyers and asked customers for food donations this past Saturday.

“We’re asking people to donate for the poor people and at the end of the day we’re going to go to the ,” said Nick Ramos, who has been a member of Pack 246 for 2 years.

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The Mineola members donate the food to the local parish, but Boy Scout troops all over America were doing the same thing that day.

“The program itself, called Scouting for Food, is actually a national program that people are doing all over the United States today,” Scouting for Food Coordinator Linda Ramos said.

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The groups worked in shifts starting at 10 a.m. and ending around 2 p.m. Pack 246, a group of boys ranging from six to 10 years old, started their scouting first. The scouts from Troop 45 made their way to Stop and Shop around noon, taking over for the younger boys. Pack 246 has participated in the program consistently over the years, but this was Troop 45’s first time Scouting for Food in a while.

“We missed this for the past two or 3 years so I decided to try and get it going again,” Adult Scout Leader John Luca said.

Once food was collected, the boys loaded the food into boxes and weighed them on a scale. After the day was through, the boxes of food were taken to Corpus Christi Parish. Pack 246 was able to donate 612 pounds of food while Troop 45 weighed in at 670 pounds. The boys were able to help donate a combined 1,282 pounds of food to the parish’s outreach program.

“One of the best things that we see is when we get to the outreach program and the shelves are usually empty when we get there and they’re overflowing when we’re gone,” Ramos said. “That in itself is enough of a benefit and it teaches the boys the right thing to do to help people.”

The Scouts participate in other charity work throughout the year, including helping seniors or completing service projects for the , where the Scouts hold their meetings. Troop 45 will also be involved with a trip to see the Staten Island Yankees and Hershey Park and later this year they will be celebrating their 90th anniversary with a celebration planned for current members and alumni.

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