Girl, Boy Scouts deliver for those in need; find out how their communities benefitted

SOUDERTON, Pa. - The Montgomery County scouting community is stepping in to help a local nonprofit feed those in need, after the organization’s fresh produce program fell on hard times.

"It feels good, it feels like I’m helping my community and I feel happy," Girl Scout Emilia Barnabei said.

Emilia is sharing that joy with others by delivering food to the Keystone Opportunity Center in Souderton. She joined other scout troops who stepped in to help after the nonprofit’s fresh produce program was suspended this month, due to an issue with their supplier.

Brandon Trombetta, Executive Director with Keystone Opportunity Center, stated, "First, it was a little bit of shock and, honestly, a little bit of panic for the entire month of November. That’s 14,000 pounds of food that we’re not going to be able to put out into the community."

500 families are impacted, but, fortunately, food donations were collected during the annual Scouting for Food drive, so there was plenty to give.

"It’s just unfortunate," Assistance Manager of Keystone, Andrew Berg said. "We aren’t able to be taken care of for at least the month of November. We are certainly hoping that within the month of December, we see the change, because it’s a massive hit to our availability of fresh produce for our community members."

Trombetta continued, "The meat for food in the community is, quite frankly, exponentially from 2023 to 2024. We saw a 25 percent increase in the number of families coming to us every month and then that same timeframe, we saw a 40 percent decrease in the donations coming from the community."

The suspension of the program couldn’t have come at a worse time, with the holidays around the corner. Berg said, "The prime month for that most amount of need, we would have been distributing every bit of fresh produce we would have gotten, easily, for everybody to get ready for their family meals or just for feeding themselves throughout the month of November.

While the donations will provide for families, hopefully through March, the nonprofit is asking people to make a conscious effort to give back year-round.

"Some people don’t have as much as you might, so if you have any extra, you can give and it makes you feel happy and it’s always good to help your community, even in small ways," Emilia added.