Since 1988, the Boy Scouts of America have run "Scouting for Food," by far the largest food collection drive in the Northern Virginia/Washington, DC area. Scouting for Food involves tens of thousands of Boy Scouts in this area, including Troop 177, sponsored by the Marshall Ruritan Club. All of the food collected by Troop 177 will go directly to local helping local organizations such as churches and soup kitchens in Northern Fauquier and Southern Loudoun Counties. In particular, a substantial portion of the food collected in the Middleburg area goes to our local Seven Loaves Services, an ecumenical food ministry that operates out of the Middleburg United Methodist Church (UMC).

Last year, Scouts throughout the D.C. area collected over 822,709 pounds of food, of which about 630 pounds were donated by Middleburg residents and collected by Troop 177.

This is how it works:
• On Saturday, November 3, 2007, Scouts will distribute plastic bags outside of Middleburg residences.
• Each resident is requested to collect any goods (canned goods are preferred) that they are willing to donate, place them in the provided bag and to place the bag(s) outside their front door next week, either late Friday night, November 9th or early Saturday morning November 10th (by 8:30 a.m.). Note that although canned goods are preferred, the Scouts will take anything that is unopened in boxes or glass jars.
• Scouts from Troop 177 will start collecting bags at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, November 10th.
• Our Scouts will be in pairs, in uniform, and accompanied by parents/Adult Scout Leaders in automobiles.
• Scouts will not be knocking on resident's doors to solicit contributions.
• If a house is missed, the resident is requested to drop their bag off at Seven Loaves Services at Middleburg UMC, 15 West Washington Street, Middleburg, VA.