Boy Scouts Collecting Food

For the 25th year, the Knox Trail Council Boy Scouts will do a Good Turn for area food pantries.

This year, the demand on the pantries has taken an unexpected turn, said Ed Behn of Westborough, the event chairman.

A food pantry speaker at September’s Scouting for Food, Good Turn for America kickoff meeting “definitely said they continue to see growing needs,” Behn said.

“They’re seeing a lot more underemployed now. People that had had jobs, but now they’re not making the same, so they need to supplement. So, they’re seeing a wider audience, a non-traditional audience,” Behn said.

Collecting more than 100 tons of food is the goal of this year’s drive, which starts Saturday, Nov. 3.

Boy and Cub Scouts will go door-to-door in the council's 21 communities, including Milford, that day, delivering donation bags donated by Price Chopper.

The Scouts will return to collect the donations on Nov. 10 and bring them to area food pantries.

The Knox Trail Council collected just under 100 tons of donations last year, Behn said.

The council collected 100 tons in 2010,the 100th anniversary of the organization.

Behn is chairing the drive for the third straight year.

“The Boy Scouts, as you know, do a good turn," he said. "And this is a national good turn.”