FREEPORT – Last Saturday, members of Cub Scouts Pack 45 fanned about Freeport with bags donated by Shaw’s, asking residents to donate food for the food pantry at Freeport Community Services.

This Saturday, the Cub Scouts will pick up the bags, and with help from Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, they will distribute the food to the food pantry. The food, in turn, will help fill Thanksgiving baskets for families in need, and help to replenish the food pantry shelves.

The so-called “Scouting for Food” is one of several efforts to help people in and around Freeport this Thanksgiving. L.L. Bean and Merrymeeting Bay Triad are collaborating on a Coats for Seniors collection from Nov. 22-24. Azure Cafe is putting on a free Thanksgiving Day meal at Freeport Community Services, and local churches also are joining the giving spirit.

Heather Gunn, den leader, assistant Cub master and secretary for Pack 45, expects about 40 children in grades 1-5 to be involved in Scouting for Food. The Cub Scouts knocked on doors last Saturday, and if no one was home, they left the Shaw’s bag with a flier on the doorknobs. They will return this Saturday.

Gunn went out with her 9-year-old son, Gabriel.

“The young Scouts still go along with mom and dad,” Gunn said. “It’s like a whole morning thing. It’s all voluntary, but we have such a huge amount of kids who want to do it. It’s amazing.”

Gunn estimated that last year’s Scouting for Food effort garnered 5,000 pounds of food.

“There’s always the intention among Scouts of giving back,” she said. “It’s a sense of fulfillment. I think it’s important early on to have a sense of giving to others. This is what we can do to help, even if it’s only for a few hours. It’s a few hours well spent.”

Gunn credited Melanie Sachs, executive director of Freeport Community Services, for helping bring the Cub Scouts back to the Freeport area.

“We’ve got to give a shout-out to Melanie Sachs,” she said. “She saw the need and stepped in. She became the Scout master, and she also worked with Girl Scouts.”

Elsewhere, Freeport Rotary Club member James Hendricks reported Monday that the organization raised $1,853 in a two-week drive to supply the Freeport Community Services Food Pantry with turkeys for Thanksgiving.

In the past, Hendricks said, the Rotary Club has donated the turkeys. This year, Freeport Community Services preferred a cash donation, which it used to purchase turkeys, he said.

“It couldn’t have come at a better time this year, because of the unfortunate accident they had with their freezer,” Hendricks said.

Hendricks was referring to a power failure with the food pantry freezer two weeks ago, which caused about 50 turkeys and other frozen food to spoil.

Casco Bay Cutlery and Kitchenware is in the giving spirit, as well, and again Freeport Community Services will benefit. On Thursday and Friday, the store will discount most of its items by 10 percent for anyone who brings in a food item.

Owners Doug and Rhoda Dillman said they are pleased to help Freeport Community Services with its mission.

“We like to support them,” Doug Dillman said. “This was my wife’s idea. It’s all about being part of the community.”

Rhoda Dillman had distributed posters around town to let people know about the special offer.

Freeport Cafe, located at 29 U.S. Route 1, also is chipping in with the food pantry effort.

Anyone who brings in 10 boxed or canned non-perishable items on Nov. 23 or Nov. 24 will receive a $5 gift card, good toward a purchase at the cafe.

Freeport Cafe is open from 6 a.m.-9 p.m.

Thanksgiving meal

Warm food is nice on Thanksgiving, too.

Azure Cafe is taking care of that, with a free Thanksgiving Day feast for anyone who is in need of a place to go for the day, compliments of cafe? owners Jonas and Kate Werner and executive chef Chris Bassett.

This year’s feast, as it has been for the past several years, is at the Freeport Community Center, from 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m.

It will be a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, with roasted turkey and all of the trimmings, served with the help of a host of volunteers. No reservations are needed for the dinner.

Coats for Seniors

With freezing temperatures and winter weather on the way, volunteers will be collecting gently worn coats, at the Coats for Seniors collection at L.L. Bean from Nov. 22-24, during the opening weekend of L.L. Bean’s Northern Lights Celebration.

Coats can be dropped off in the L.L. Bean lobby all weekend long, according to Merrymeeting Bay Triad. The coats will be distributed to seniors in need through the Maine Association of Area Agencies on Aging and other community agencies. In addition to providing support for the coat collection, L.L. Bean will donate $5 for each coat received to Maine Association of Area Agencies on Aging to provide emergency heating assistance to low-income seniors. Ben & Jerry’s is sweetening the deal even more by offering the first 100 coat donors with a coupon for a free ice cream cone.

“Over the past five years, local businesses, community groups, congregations, and concerned individuals all over mid-coast and southern Maine have collected thousands of warm winter coats that have helped so many seniors in need,” said Grace Lalime, co-chairwoman of Merrymeeting Bay Triad.

Last year, efforts helped get more than 600 coats to Maine seniors and provided more than $3,000 in heating assistance to seniors in need, Merrymeeting Bay Triad reports.

Merrymeeting Bay Triad is a volunteer organization that brings together senior citizens, law enforcement and community service agencies to promote senior safety and to reduce the fear of crime and isolation that seniors often experience.

Coats for Seniors is also supported by Pratt-Abbott Cleaners, which donates services to clean any coats. Coats are expected to be available to seniors in need starting in December. Seniors needing a winter coat should contact local agencies on aging, call 877-353-3771 or see www.maine4a.org.

Parish of the Holy Eucharist

The Parish of the Holy Eucharist, based in Yarmouth, is offering food baskets for people in need, according to its website.

St. Jude Church offered parishioners a handout early November with a list of food needed by Freeport Community Services for its pantry. Donations were returned the following weekend. From this supply, church members made up bags of groceries for families in the parish. The donations also supply food to FCS, for families in Freeport, Pownal and Durham.

Chris Bassett, the executive chef at Freeport’s Azure Café, will again be in the kitchen of the Freeport Community Center on Thanksgiving as the restaurant provides its annual free feast for the community.