Salvation Army to scout up food in annual campaign

Art Nadler

Thursday, Nov. 13, 1997 | 11:07 a.m.

The Salvation Army's cupboards may be bare, but that could change after this weekend.

An estimated 10,000 Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts will be hanging yellow plastic bags on doorknobs throughout the community Saturday, in an effort to collect 100 tons of food for needy families.

The Salvation Army is hoping to get macaroni and cheese, canned meats, vegetables and fruits, dried goods and baby foods. Currently, all the charity has in its food bank are some canned items such as beans and corn.

Carol Sloan, director of Family Services at the Salvation Army, said her organization is helping about 4,500 families a month. She attributes this to more people losing their jobs, or coming to Las Vegas expecting to get jobs that don't materialize.

"If it wasn't for the Scouts getting food for us, we wouldn't make it," Sloan said Wednesday. "We are going through food like crazy. Our supply ran out in June, and we have been doing small drives since then."

Michael Miller, public relations spokesman with the Boulder Dam Area Council Boy Scouts of America, said this is the 10th year the Scouts have done a food drive. He estimates they've collected more than 460,000 tons of food in nine years.

"This helps instill the value of helping others," Miller said of what Scouts gain from their experience. "There's 300 different scouting units involved."

Miller said Scouts will be putting empty yellow plastic bags on doors between 8:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. on Saturday. They'll return around noon to collect whatever food items are in the bags.

Scouts won't be knocking on doors, Miller said.

Sloan said the Salvation Army wants to be able to give each needy family four bags of food -- two full of canned items and two containing dried commodities.

Homeless people will not be given food, Sloan said. A family seeking help must provide a recent rent receipt or utility bill to show that they are area residents.

The Salvation Army Family Services Division, 35 W. Owens Ave., is open five days a week, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.