Background: Service is a cornerstone of the OA’s philosophy. What’s a better way to serve the community than volunteering one day at the local food bank or soup kitchen?

Meeting Resources: The only thing you need is uniformed scouts with a cheerful attitude and willingness to serve!

Meeting Content: Contact your local soup kitchen or food bank well in advance of the meeting you wish to have there. Then begin planning. For example, if you choose to work at a local soup kitchen:

• Ask a coordinator at the kitchen what sort of assistance a group the size of your chapter can provide.
• Offer the services of the chapter by serving food for a meal one day.
• Bring a donation of two cans of non-perishable food per volunteer with you when you arrive.
• Or, if the soup kitchen would prefer donations, consider organizing a canned food drive at the next lodge event.
  • Set up a large box for each chapter at the next fellowship. Encourage chapters to donate canned food.
  • At the end of the event, weigh the boxes and divide by the number of people in the chapter.
  • The chapter that donates the most food per person wins! Recognize them in the next newsletter.
  • Make this a tradition at each Ordeal. As the word spreads, more food will be donated.
• Follow through! If you commit twenty people to volunteering, make sure twenty people volunteer!
• Keep in mind the personal challenge you accepted to “eat the scant food you’ll be given” at your Ordeal.
• Ask the kitchen coordinator when the best month would be to do this. Sometimes summer months are when donations are needed most.