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SALT LAKE CITY — Organizers of the Scouting for Food drive set a goal of collecting 100,000 pounds of donated food this year.
In the final tally, 136,000 pounds were collected — a record for donations to the Scouting for Food initiative, which has been gathering contributions to battle food insecurity in Utah for the last 38 years.
"We collected 38,000 more pounds of food than last year; that is going to go a long way and go to the families and pantries we serve," said Megan Kenley, marketing and communications specialist for Bank of Utah.
Another opportunity to help feed Utahns is coming this weekend: Residents can participate in the Feed Utah food drive by placing a bag of nonperishable food outside their front door by 9 a.m. on Saturday, donating funds or volunteering to help collect food donations. Drop-off locations across the state include Utah Food Bank's warehouses in Salt Lake City, Springville, St. George and Blanding, any Macey's grocery store or participating pantry location, and other community sites.
February's Scouting for Food food drive was supported by a large list of companies and organizations that enthusiastically lent their time and resources to help the Crossroads of the West Council, the organizer of the food drive, and the Boy Scouts of America council that serves every Scout troop in Utah, collect over 2,300 more pounds of donated food for each of the 16 food pantries that the initiative supports every year.
To Kenley, the reason for the drive's success this year boils down to collaborating with and fostering a trusting relationship with the Utah community.
"We have a lot to be thankful for to the media and the reach and distance we were able to achieve," Kenley said, adding that a revamped marketing strategy and a "creative refresh" were also significant contributing factors in the food drive's success this year.
Kenley also credited the intense involvement of the food drive's partners this year as another reason for Scouting for Food's success this year, explaining that everyone did their part. Efforts from the drive's partners included Red Hanger, which used its vans to pick up and drop off donations and Bank of Utah, which contributed to the drive's marketing campaign and advertisements.
"We were so surprised by the total at the end of this drive because it symbolized such an outpouring of love from the community," Kenley said. "We were just really surprised and touched by the amount of donations that came in this year."
Saturday food drive:
