BOUNTIFUL -- Scouting for Food, the largest single-day annual food drive in Utah is scheduled for Saturday and volunteers at the Bountiful Community Food Pantry are gearing up to receive the thousands of pounds of food they expect. "We never know how much food to expect," said the pantry's director of operations Dorothy Willhite, "but people in South Davis are always so generous, we're ready for almost anything." Last year the pantry received more than 100,000 pounds of food. South Davis residents are receiving grocery bags through Friday and are being asked to fill them and leave them on their doorstep for Boy Scouts to pick up.

This will be the first major food drive since the pantry moved into its new state-of-the-art facility, and Willhite expects that the operation of moving the tons of food collected Friday into the pantry will go smoother than it's ever gone.

Scouts will be able to unload their donations into huge boxes, which will then be moved into the building on pallets.

In addition to the pantry's regular volunteers, they will receive help from Boy Scout troops, the Order of the Arrow and five Weber State University students working on a community service project.

Willhite said that this year the pantry especially needs such items as sugar and cooking oil, and personal care items like shampoo, conditioner, toothbrushes and toothpaste and diapers.

Utah Food Bank officials expect donations statewide to reach more than a million pounds of food.

The food collected over the weekend will help keep the Bountiful pantry stocked throughout the summer.

mwilliams@davisclipper.com