Every year just before the holidays, Scouting America troops across the country collect food items for local pantries, right off our front porches. It’s an effort started 40 years ago from here in Missouri.

Scouting for Food became a national Scouting America program in 1988, expanding across the country as thousands of scouts collectively gathered hundreds of thousands of pounds of shelf-stable goods for food insecure residents in their local communities. Lacretia Wimbley of St. Louis Public Radio brings us this report.

Contact the show at [email protected]. Follow KCUR on Instagram and Facebook for the latest news.

Kansas City Today is hosted by Savannah Hawley-Bates. It is produced by Gabe Rosenberg and KCUR Studios, and edited by Madeline Fox and Emily Younker.

You can support Kansas City Today by becoming a KCUR member: kcur.org/donate.