Wantagh Scout Troop Collects Food for Needy at Super Stop & Shop

This past weekend, Boy Scout Troop 189 and Cub Scout Pack 189 of Wantagh were in front of the Levittown collecting food for the Mary Brennan Inn Soup Kitchen in Hempstead.

Troop 189 and Pack 189 have been collecting food for the needy for the past seven years and traditionally holds drives during the winter when food banks are in great need after Christmas. In front of the Levittown Super Stop & Shop, there were about a dozen scouts asking customers to donate food or to provide monetary donations.

“It’s for a good cause and I think it’s a great thing for everybody to do.” said Joe Rich, who has been a scout for 10 years.

“A lot of families need to be fed and during these hard times you know it means a lot to them and to do a good-turn daily especially in these hard times," said scout Anthony Russo.

The food that the scouts collected this past weekend will be weighed and brought to an Island Harvest collection drive taking place at the Massapequa Long Island Rail Road station on March 10.

Troop 189, which is set to celebrate its 60th anniversary this September, is based in Wantagh but also has scouts from the surrounding communities. Some of the scouts will be moving up from Pack 189 to Troop 189 later this month with a special bridge ceremony. The troop will also be camping this month at the Theodore Roosevelt Council Winter Camp event known as Blue Nose on Onteora Scout Reservation in Livingston Manor, N.Y.

The committee chair for Troop 189 is Jeff Cohen, a former Boy Scout who is now back in scouting for his two sons. For more information on Troop 189, visit their website.