Boy Scouts take an oath to "help other people at all times,” and it turned out to be something good for a food pantry in Allen.
Griffin Meagher got word that the food pantry at First Baptist Church Allen was was running low. He called to verify what he’d heard.
“The number of people they help each week has gone up almost 20% (from 83 families prior to COVID in February to 98 and 95 families in March and April and 30 new families in total have come to rely on FBC Allen Food Pantry) and they expect even more in the coming weeks,” the teenager said in an email.
So, the boy scout got to work getting the shelves stocked. First, he reached out to his troop and on social media pages asking for donations.
“When I started it I knew there would be people willing to donate but as it went on I was just blown away by how many people donated and by how much they donated. In total it was over $4,000 in cash and donated items,” he wrote.
The Allen High School senior took every cent in donations and went with his dad to three stores to buy food and diapers to help families in his community struggling during the coronavirus pandemic.
He and friends then delivered boxes and boxes of donations to the food pantry on Monday, April 27, and then returned a few days later with more.
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“I have been back once this week to deliver some more food and cash donations that I received after the initial drop off,” he wrote.
Griffin's project will help him earn the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest award possible in scouting. “I’m really looking forward to that as I have been involved in Scouting for 12 years,” he wrote.
Frank Buercklin, the scoutmaster of Troop 221 in Plano, says Griffin “did an outstanding job of planning, organizing, and executing.”
“I am very proud of him, the hard work he did, and the leadership and creativity he showed throughout the phases of the project,” he said.
