Scouts' food drive has weighty results Scouts' food drive has weighty results (December 01, 2004)

** Flood Park area residents donations benefit Second Harvest.

You can measure the food by weight: almost a ton. Or you can simply say that it filled up the backs of four minivans.

Either way, it's clear that Boy Scout Troop 206 collected a whole lot of nourishment for the needy during its annual Scouting for Food program. The boys in the troop, which is based in Menlo Park and Atherton, gathered donations in the area of Flood Park in Menlo Park just before Thanksgiving, assistant scoutmaster Phil McHale said.

One Saturday morning, the boys went around leaving plastic bags and notes at people's doors explaining the national program, Mr. McHale said. The following week, they picked up the food: mostly canned items, but also dry goods such as pasta.

The scouts then took the food to the Second Harvest Food Bank in San Carlos.

"This is something really tangible," Mr. McHale said of the weighty donation. "They (the boys) get to see that it's benefiting part of the community that really needs some help."

The troop, which is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this year, has been taking part in Scouting for Food for at least five years, he added.

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