Each year Scouting for Food mobilizes community businesses and organizations and focuses the resources of more than 300,000 people to collect food for 120,000 hungry people throughout southwestern Pennsylvania.

During April 1-30 the Greater Pittsburgh Council, Boy Scouts of America, in partnership with the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania, conducted its 19th annual Scouting for Food program.

Since 1987, more than 67 million units of food have been collected and distributed to community food banks.

For years, Monongahela Valley Hospital has participated in the Scouting for Food campaign. And again, the 2007 campaign was a successful effort thanks to the generosity of hospital family members who play a vital role in providing food to help meet the demand.

This year 12,657 units of food and related items were collected from MVH to assist those in need in the mid-Monongahela Valley. MVH’s last year total of 9,297units of food was the second highest total of any free standing hospital in the Boy Scout’s Western PA region. The food collected remains in the mid-Monongahela Valley specifically for the residents of this area.

Garrett McLaughlin (left) and Kyle Rodriguez (right), Second Class Boy Scouts from Washington Township Troop 1561, and Terry Babington (center), District Executive of the Mon Valley Council, take a break while loading the Monongahela Valley Hospital donations onto delivery trucks at the hospital. The food will be delivered to the Monongahela Food Pantry, a facility of the Monongahela Free Methodist Church, which houses one of the Washington County Food Bank locations. Both Garrett and Kyle’s mothers work at MVH.