A Time to Give - Scouting for Food

Welcome back to A Time to Give, my weekly feature where we share ways to give, ways to share, ways to be generous. If this is your first time stopping by, welcome! You can read the original A Time to Give post HERE. In a nutshell, I started this feature as a way for us to inspire each other to be even more generous. I tend to get wrapped up in finding great deals, and I don't want to lose sight of one of the reasons we live frugally... to be able to give more. Each week I'll share a giving idea of mine, and you share a giving idea of yours.

As the weather turns colder, you will most likely find a bag swinging from your front doorknob. This is no ordinary bag! This bag will have been placed there by The Boy Scouts of America as part of their Scouting for Food project. Scouting for Food is America's largest one-day food drive, involving over 30,000 Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Venturers lending a hand to the needy as they strive to "give good will" and "help other people at all times," both promises made by scouts.

The scouts will be dropping off bags in communities sometime VERY SOON. You'll see these bags appear on your doorknobs, usually on a Saturday. Our job is to fill those bags with canned goods and other non-perishable food items. Then we'll have the bags back on our front porches ready for pickup by the scouts the very next Saturday. The boys will collect the bags, sort and box the food, and deliver it to local food banks.

One of the Boy Scout websites I visited listed the following items as their top choices for canned goods:

• Soup
• Tuna or Chicken
• Fruit
• 100% Fruit Juice
• Vegetables
• Evaporated Milk
• Other items with high nutritional values

Last year, the Boy Scouts were able to collect 2.2 million cans of food! That's amazing!

The bag distribution and pick-up dates seem to vary from region to region on the websites that I visited. If you search for your local Boy Scouts of America organization, you should be able to get detailed information about how you can get involved. What a great way to help hungry people in our communities while also encouraging young men to step out and make a difference.

Thanks to Brandy at The Prudent Homemaker for suggesting that I share this idea for giving!

Now it's your turn to share your ideas for sharing, giving, and being generous. Note: If you are reading this post via an email subscription or a blog reader, you'll need to click the title of the post in order to see the links left by others.

You can participate in a couple of ways. If you're a blogger, write a post about a way that you've been able to give. It can be something simple or something out-of-the-ordinary that you did. It can be something from this week or from last year. Don't think of it as bragging... It's a way to encourage others to take action and be more generous! A few guidelines for bloggers:

• Please add a link to Saving and Giving so that your readers can find everyone's ideas all in one place.


• Make sure the link that you add here takes people directly to your A Time to Give post, not the main page of your blog. To do that, publish your post, view your blog, right click on the title, and copy the shortcut. Then paste that shortcut in as your URL here.


• Bloggers who link to other posts or their main pages will have their links removed. This eliminates confusion for others who are looking for ideas on how to give.


• Please do not link to giveaways, contests, or ads.


• Feel free to use the image above in your post. It's not mandatory, but you're welcome to it!

If you're not a blogger, you can participate too! Simply click the comments link below this post, and leave your ideas there. I would love to hear from you!

If you have any questions about A Time to Give, please feel free to contact me at savingandgiving@gmail.com. I look forward to being inspired by your ideas on giving! And stop back each Thursday for a new edition of A Time to Give.