Scouting for Food question

[AlamanceScouter]

I am a den leader for a Bear den and we are going to cover my subdivision for Scouting for Food. This is a typical subdivision with homes on 1/3 to 1/2 acre lots....is there a average number of homes that you have seen a couple of Cub Scouts cover as they canvass a neighborhood? Just trying to organize and split my group up...with proper adult guidance of course.

[Eagle92]

Wish I could help, but this is my 1st S4F in the field. In the past I was in a support role, i.e. at the collection point, at a place where extra supplies could be picked up, etc.

 

My advice would be to make sure you are not in another unit's area. In my neck of the woods, the city map is color-coded with individual units' areas.

[NealOnWheels]

I have taken a den of wolf scouts into a neighborhood with similar sized lots.

 

4 scouts in two groups. 88 homes. 2 hours. Somewhat hilly. All at the verge of dropping by the end. All had a good time but were glad to be done.

 

Hope this helps.

[OwntheNight]

You would be surprised how much energy those kids have. It becomes a competition for them, to see who can get to the next house with bag in hand!

 

Ask your SFF coordinator for the master map, find your area and either make copies of it or go to google maps or mapquest and magnify the field of view to show all the streets in that area. Have one boy go up one side and the other go on the other side. Create a starting point and an ending point, unless you run out of bags.

 

Now if your subdivision has 500+ houses in it, you might consider breaking that up amongst other dens. In 2-3 hrs you should be able to cover your service area pretty cleanly.

 

I always remind my boys to say "Thank You" to every person who answers the door, whether they give food or not, and I encourage them to use the sidewalks, instead of running through the yards.

 

Something else to think about. SFF can be a great opportunity to recruit boys into the pack. Print some cards up with your name and phone # or the cubmaster's info to hand out to residents who have elementary school age kids that aren't in scouts.

[Scoutfish]

If you thought there was racing and competition at a Pine Wood Derby...just wait.

 

If not held back, those scouts will cover 800 houses in a day.

 

There is the competition of who can do the most houses, who can go from house to housr quicker, who can go to the house with the cooest car out front, and who can pet the dog first.

 

The biggest thing I do is try my best to get them to say "Yes sir/maam" and "thank you" even if people are not interested.

 

I also told the scouts that if people ask what S4F is, it's easier to just say" We are collecting EXTRA food for those who may not have any" ..amnd leave it at that.

 

[Twocubdad]

Go to Google Earth, find your neighborhood and count the houses.

[AlamanceScouter]

Thanks for the advise.....really appreciate it.

 

 

[acco40]

What you will find is that if the vast majority of homes do not contribute anything, the boys will tire quickly. If they have a "giving" rate of 20% or higher (every 5th house or so gives something), they can last quite a long time.

 

I'll never forget my first SFF with my oldest (now Eagle) son when he was a Wolf. His den leader did not do SFF as a den activity just assigned houses to Scouts. So off we went just Dad and son. Well, he looked upon it as a personal failure if a house did not contribute anything and unfortunately we got lots of "not home", "nothing to give", "not interested" types of responses and he was heart broken.

 

As a Scoutmaster, our troop manned the collection center. We boxed and loaded the food that multiple Packs, Troops, Crews and individuals brought in. It was hard work, kept us extremely busy for 8 hours but still, better than door to door work IMO.

[packsaddle]

Interesting. Boys no longer go door-to-door in our area. Instead they set up (with permission) outside several grocery stores and distribute lists of suggested items (supplied by the local charities). If someone wants to contribute they drop it off as they exit. We do pretty well this way.

 

But back when we DID go door-to-door Scoutfish is right. They had a great time racing from house to house, leaving empty bags and then the next week they had another great time picking it all up.

In case you missed it, I've also recounted the story about a particular woman who the boys fought over. One year the two boys I was driving around (one was my son) encountered a woman who chased them with a broom! They got into the car laughing about it and soon became the envy of the pack. Then every year all the boys wanted to do that street. But the district changed the program and we never saw her again. Now those boys are grown and they still talk and laugh about it. I guess she just didn't like kids.

[Eagle92]

Our S4F program is 2 weekends: first is putting out flyers saying we will be collecting food the next weekend, then the pick up. Even if no body is home, usually bags of food are on the porch.

[Troop22]

SFF is an important community service and is fun for all my Scouts. My Troop of 12 Scouts cover approx. 1500 homes and townhouses. We put the bags out one week and collect them the next week.

We divide and conqour. 2 leaders and 2 adult volunteers(2 adults per vehicle) with 2 trucks and 4 Scouts per route. 2 Scouts will walk on each side of the street collecting bags.Our route is all sub divisions and townhome communties so traffic is slow and very light. We use our 4 way flashers the entire time. It takes us 2.5 hours to get the bags out and it takes us about 3 hours to pick them up.

 

It is always a compitition between the Scouts of who picked up the most.

Every year after we collect the bags we take the Scouts for pizza and either bowling or a movie (this helps with participation).