Written by 3rd Pinelands Scout Isla Morrow (15)

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Earlier this year, Philip Brink, a Scout at the 3rd Pinelands Scout Group, lead an initiative of making “jars of hope” (jars filled with dry ingredients to make soup) and sandwiches to be donated to Ladles of Love, a charity organisation focused on providing nutritious food to communities in need.

Scouting is an international youth organisation that focuses on providing skills to young people such as methods of survival, leadership and teamwork. Within Scouting there is a strong focus of giving back to the community in the form of service to better the environment as well as the greater community.

In order to do this project, Philip had to start by collecting enough donations to be able to make the soup mix and sandwiches. He sent out messages to various social media platforms and community WhatsApp groups and managed to get a lot of donations. He spent a weekend with some other Scouts and managed to make a total of 92 jars of soup mix and 468 sandwiches using these donations, which is certain to help a lot of people!

“I did my community service because I saw in the storms that there were so many people struggling to get their basic needs fulfilled, so I decided that I was going to make a difference and help people in this way and provide the means to have a hot meal, and in other cases a sandwich. Hopefully that helped some of the community. Scouting has uplifted me and given me the skills and courage to branch out and run something like this effectively,” Philip says.

He led this campaign in order to pass off a requirement for his advancement within the organisation, which he has been a part of since he was 11 years old (in 2018). Scouting has given him a wide range of abilities including planning projects and leadership. He became a Patrol Leader in June 2023 and a Troop Leader in August 2024, a few weeks before he aged out of the Scout branch.

A huge congratulation to Philip for leading such an incredible campaign, what a wonderful way to spread the messages and values of Scouting to better the community!

To find out more about the Scouting Movement, visit https://www.Scouts.org.za/get-involved/ and get involved within a Troop.