30,000 Scouts Participate in Annual Food Drive : Donations: More than 600,000 pounds of groceries were gathered and will be given to food banks and relief agencies.

Scoutmaster Rick Nowicki was surrounded by baby food, macaroni and cheese, even caviar and bottles of champagne. By noon Saturday, the parking lot of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was beginning to resemble a grocery store.

“Things are really picking up now,” said Nowicki as he looked toward the row of cars on Los Alisos Boulevard waiting to unload countless bags of food.

The church was one of 27 locations in Orange County that served as a food collection site for the Boy Scouts of America’s annual Scouting for Food program. This year, more than 30,000 local Scouts and leaders joined the effort.

In all, Orange County Scouts collected more than 600,000 pounds of non-perishable food, which will be distributed to local food banks and relief agencies for the needy, officials said.

The Scouts descended upon neighborhoods last week and distributed plastic grocery bags with information about the drive. On Saturday, they returned to the homes and knocked on the doors of those who had not already left a donation for them to pick up.

Among the most ebullient donors was Valerie Burgess, who cheerfully greeted 14-year-old Scouts Chris Anlenesse and Ahren Boulanger at the front steps of her home in the El Toro Mobile Estates.

Burgess handed the Scouts two bags loaded with groceries, including cans of soup and several boxes of cereal and crackers.

“I can’t believe how much food is in here!” Anlenesse said. “I’m amazed.”

Burgess, 69, said she was touched by the Scouts’ enthusiasm and effort.

“I think it’s super,” Burgess said as she watched the pair collect food from a neighbor. “Everyone has got to do their part. If they can pay the rent, they can spare a few cans of food. Thanksgiving is all about sharing the bounty.”

But the collection did not go as smoothly for everyone.

“We had to wait for 20 minutes at one door just for some kid to tell us that his mom was busy,” said Scout Aaron Keller, 13, after arriving at the church to drop off what he had collected.

But Keller, an eighth-grader at Fred Newhart Middle School in Mission Viejo, said that inconvenience paled in comparison to when he walked up to the door of a house on Larkwood Lane in Lake Forest and found himself staring into the eyes of a pit bull.

“The dog had a one-inch spiked collar and was just staring at me as I waited for the owner to gather up some cans of food,” said Keller, who later laughed about the encounter.

“I’m going to do this food drive next year,” he said, “But I’m bringing Mace.”