Boy Scout Commissioner Jim Newcomb posed in front of Goodwin’s Market last year with Scouts Patrick Waters, Preston Reeder and Landon Reeder. (File photo by Douglas W. Motley)

Support the Scouts – feed your neighbor

Since 2001, Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts on the mountain have been collecting nonperishable food that they donate to Operation Provider, the mountain’s food bank.
This Saturday, Nov. 12, Scouts will be greeting shoppers outside Stater Bros. in Lake Arrowhead Village, Jensen’s Finest Foods in Blue Jay and Goodwin & Son’s Market in Crestline.
From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Scouts will have printed lists available of suggested food items most needed by Operation Provider. The collected food will be delivered to the Rimforest food bank by the Scouts, their parents and their leaders, who are part of the Gray Arrow District.
The food drive was brought to the mountain by Jim Newcomb, the local Boy Scout commissioner, who had seen a similar program in Northern California. It quickly spread to the rest of the California Inland Empire Council. Since then, Scouting for Food has become one of the premier community service projects for local Scouts.
Last year mountain Scouts collected 3,200 pounds of nonperishable food and $1,314 in donations. Since 2001, they have collected more than 56,000 pounds of food and about $22,000 in donations.
The local Scouts ask everyone to encourage their families, friends and neighbors to stop in at one of the three grocery stores and purchase a few items to help them do a “good turn” for the mountain communities.