Scouts in Medina collect lots of food for local pantries

Photos by Ginny Kropf: Scouts in Troops 28 and 35 and Packs 28 and 35, their leaders and parents who participated in the Scouts’ annual food drive lined up for a picture in the food pantry at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Medina on Saturday morning. Kneeling, from left, are Gideon Pask, Scoutmaster Tim Miller and Matthew Jacobs. Standing are parent Joseph Brueckner, Nate Miller (a third-generation Scout), Aidyn Jackson, Jake Jackson, Aaron Thomas and parent Robert Jacobs.

MEDINA – Food pantries at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church and Calvary Tabernacle Assembly of God got a big boost today for the holiday season with the annual food drive conducted by local Boy and Cub Scouts from Troops 28 and 35 and Cub Packs 28 and 35.

Scouts, their leaders and parents covered every street in the village of Medina a week ago, leaving a tag at each home which residents could use to identify donated food items left on the porch for Scouts to pick up. On Saturday morning, the Scouts again traveled down each street, looking for homes who had put donated items out for the Scouts to pick up in their annual “Scouting for Food” drive.

Rob Robinson, a Scout leader with Troop 28, said the Scouts interrupted their camping weekend on Scott Road to pick up the food items and deliver them to St. Peter’s Lutheran Church.

Scouts Will Miner, Jimmy Dieter and Colton Smith and assistant Scoutmaster Shaun Smith bring in food items which were donated by the Medina community to the food pantry at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church. The food drive is an annual Scout project.

At the church, Robin Dubai, who has headed the food pantry at St. Peter’s for almost 30 years, her husband Denny, volunteers Bob Hoffman and Diane Mazur and Donna Poore, head of Calvary Tabernacle Assembly of God’s food pantry, sorted bags and boxes of food as they were delivered. Items were stacked on shelves according to category, and then were divided between St. Peter’s and Calvary Tabernacle Assembly of God.

Boy Scout Nicholas Reese said it was good to do something in return for the community.

Robinson said his involvement in Scouting started back in 1990 when he was in church one Sunday.

“I had been a Scout as a kid and I let it be known if a Scout troop needed help to let me know,” Robinson said. “One Sunday, a Scout leader came up to me and said, ‘I understand you’d like to help a Scout group.’ The rest is history. My life has grown expediently because of Scouting, in terms on trips and experiences, such as camping at Niagara Falls Air Force Base.”

From left, Denny Dubai, Robin Dubai, Rob Robinson and Bob Hoffman sort food donations at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church this morning.

The Scouts annually do a food drive just before Thanksgiving to benefit the local food pantries. Another food drive by the Post Office in May will also benefit them, Dubois said.

St. Peter’s food pantry is open from 10 a.m. to noon Tuesdays and Thursdays (closed Thanksgiving until Dec. 1) then open again until Dec. 15, when it closes until Jan. 3.

Calvary Tabernacle’s food pantry is open the same days, from 9 a.m. to noon.

Dubai said families may go to both food pantries, if they have the need.

Volunteers sorting food as it is delivered by Scout groups on Saturday morning are, Robin Dubai, who heads the food pantry at St. Peter’s Church; Bob Hoffman, Diane Mazur and Donna Poore, head of the food pantry at Calvary Tabernacle Assembly of God.