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Health & Fitness

Food Drive Pick-up

Cub Scouts picked up bags for the annual "Scouting for Food" drive.

Last Saturday I happened to unload groceries from my car when my block was "swarmed" by six Cub Scouts. They were dropping off blue "Scouting for Food" plastic bags.

At most apartment buildings they put four bags on or inside the front door. At my apartment building---at the end of a long block---they dropped one bag off. I snatched it up and took it inside before the wind blew it off the door handle.

I contacted each of my neighbors to put non-perishables in the bag. One neighbor is retired, two others are "twenty-somethings" with "starter" jobs. All promised to contribute, but when push came to shove, only my son and I participated.

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We put in some good stuff: soups, canned stew, Nutella, canned tomatoes, and rice packets. We put the bag outside on the porch one week later per the instructions.

Today, was a beautiful Fall day. I pulled the car into the driveway, cleaned out the trunk, and added windshield wiper fluid and a quart of oil. My "litter bag" was a blue Schnucks plastic bag and I set it beside the hood so I would remember to trash it after I added the oil.

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As the oil flowed down the funnel into the "add oil" hole, I thought of my father who would work on his car in the driveway changing the oil on warm Fall days.

All of a sudden, I saw movement on the nearby front porch---a Cub Scout was retrieving our "Scouting for Food" bag. Simultaneously, I saw my blue litter bag get snatched up and a Scout tore down the driveway with it.

"Wait!", I shouted,"That's my trash bag!". The Scout dropped it like a hot potato. I laughed and thanked both Cub Scouts for their good deed of picking up the food bags. Still laughing I explained the "other" blue bag to their adult as I snapped their photo. I hope that you remembered to participate in "Scouting for Food".

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