Scouts to serve community dinner

RUMFORD -- This Sunday, River Valley Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts will host their fourth annual community Thanksgiving dinner from 1-3 p.m. at the American Legion.

The 11 turkeys and groceries will be donated by Cub Scout and Boy Scout Troop 580 and their families. Girl Scout Troop 954 will be providing dessert. Coffee, tea and punch will also be provided. They American Legion provides the hall and the kitchen where the food is prepared by volunteers. There is only room to cook four turkeys, but the remaining seven are cooked by volunteers at home.

The scouts will be serving from 1-3 p.m. unless the food is gone earlier. The dinner is free, but they will be accepting non-perishable food donations for anyone wishing to donate. These will be donated to the Praise Assembly of God to help stock their food pantry. They recently expressed seeing an increased need of people and families in the community needing the pantry. If anyone is unable to get out to the dinner due to medical reasons, delivery can be arranged by calling Dan 418-8560.

This event began with “Scouting for Food,” an annual Boy Scouts of America door-to-door food drive to fill food pantries nationwide. This raised awareness of the amount of hungry people in our own community that rely on the food pantries, as well as those who may not have families to spend the holidays with so may be alone.

They decided to take ‘Scouting for Food’ one-step further by preparing and serving a complete Thanksgiving dinner for those in need. The scouts were filled with pride as they gave to the community one spoonful at a time and it carried forward each year thanks to the commitment of the leaders and the motivation of the overwhelming fullness of giving to the community.

Some years there was an abundance of food left, so it was packaged and delivered to the local police, fire and medical providers who were so thankful for the thoughtfulness of the warm meal.