Latest news with #Koci
Metro
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Metro
Lawyer shaves his head in protest but misses a spot
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video A lawyer brought out a shaver in front of reporters to protest his government's failure to constitute an assembly for the fiftieth time in a row. Standing in front of the Kosovo Assembly in Prishtina, attorney Arianit Koci defiantly shaved his white locks as onlookers filmed in awe. He said of his actions: 'They are a symbolic act. Our statehood in Kosovo is also being threatened. Friends and enemies are becoming convinced that we are not capable of maintaining a state.' Though his actions were done to make a point, it appears the passion of the moment caused him to miss quite a few patches of hair. It can always grow back, right? Koci has been met with support from Kosovans, who applauded his individual protest. One supporter wrote: 'You are the clear conscience of the nation! Every action of yours fills me with hope, and gives me the message that this country has no end.' Another added: 'Respect. Don't mess with these fools.' But the bizarre antics came as tensions in Kosovo continue to rise, as a political stalemate has persisted months after MPs were voted into office. The deadlock stems from the fact that outgoing Prime Minister Albin Kurti's party Vetevendosje, which topped February polls, did not win enough seats to have its choice for speaker installed. PM Kurti has been accused by other MPs of 'overthrowing constitutional order' in Kosovo by not forming an assembly 162 days after the elections. '162 days is not a lot for Albin Kurti because for him, this time is part of a plan. For the overthrow of the constitutional order, for the delegitimisation of democracy and institutions and for the undoing of the very DNA of our society. 'You will not succeed because this is not just a political crisis, it is a moral crisis, and we must stop it,' MP Vlora Çitaku said. Koci brought donkeys (notoriously stubborn animals) outside the parliament last month in another form of protest about the deadlock. Kosovo is no stranger to wild political moments. In 2023, chaos erupted when an opposition party member sprayed water at PM Kurti. The brawl became so heated that police got involved to separate the politicians. More Trending Kosovo declared independence in 2008 from Serbia. The country's independence has continued to be threatened by Serbian nationalists. The war between Kosovo and Serbia in the late 1990s saw thousands of ethnic Albanian Kosovars murdered by Serbian troops in what many dubbed a genocide. The war ended when NATO intervened by beginning air strikes in March 1999, lasting a total of 78 days, which resulted in forces withdrawing from Kosovo. By the end of the conflict, nearly 90% of Kosovo's Albanian population had been displaced. Many fled to neighbouring countries, including Albania and Macedonia. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Ragtag Zohran Mamdani protest likened to Netflix comedy sketch MORE: Deaths, fires and prison breaks: The mystery behind the eerie Annabelle doll MORE: Burglar takes 30 seconds to steal rare Pokémon cards worth £80,000 from shop
CNN
25-02-2025
- Business
- CNN
Could bird flu vaccines help tackle high egg prices? Experts say it's not so simple
On her first day on the job last week, new US Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins held a meeting to review the agency's options for controlling the bird flu outbreak and possibly help lower the price of eggs. In another meeting last week, Rollins met with two dozen farmers to hear their ideas about how to fight bird flu. She promised them relief. 'This problem wasn't created overnight, and it will take us a little time to tackle this issue, but we will take aggressive action to help our poultry farmers combat avian flu and to make eggs affordable again,' she said. On the campaign trail last year, President Donald Trump promised to bring all grocery prices down on 'day one.' But from December to January, grocery prices had the sharpest increase on a monthly basis in more than two years. Economists blame eggs. The price of eggs rose in that period at the fastest rate in nearly a decade, according to the latest Consumer Price Index. Unless something changes, Rollins' department predicts, egg prices will continue to rise more than 20% this year. One reason eggs are pricey and sometimes hard to find is an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly called bird flu. It's become a 'major' threat to commercial and backyard flocks in the United States, hitting egg-laying hens the hardest, according to the National Chicken Council. These hens account for more than 77% of the more than 162 million poultry affected by the virus since the outbreak began. The US has successfully dealt with sporadic outbreaks before, said Dr. Matt Koci, a professor in the Prestage Department of Poultry Science at North Carolina State University who specializes in immunology. Although poultry vaccines were studied, biosecurity measures and culling flocks with sick birds have been the strategy to take on the virus. Cases among chickens typically flared up only when wild birds, who can be carriers of the disease, would migrate through the US, Koci said. After they had flown on, case counts would fall to nothing. Now, though, there is so much virus in circulation that it's been turning up in resident birds and spilled over into other animals like cows, cats and even dolphins. Many scientists believe it is unlikely that the virus will ever disappear completely from the US again. 'Now that it's always here, kind of kicking around in the environment, we are seeing these little brush fires of cases popping up all the time,' Koci said. 'We were hoping it was a fluke, but this definitely seems like the new normal.' When a domestic chicken, turkey or duck gets sick, it's devastating for the flock. Wild birds can live with the virus, but commercial flocks often cannot. 'It depends on the strain, but within 48 hours, a farmer may go from seeing a few dead birds to half his flock, and certainly, within three to five days, they're all dead,' Koci said. Healthy members of the flock are often culled to help stop the spread. 'That's the reason we stamp it out. We're trying to kill them before the virus does, because it's a horrible way to die, and that helps us contain it.' In the past 30 days alone, bird flu has been confirmed in 134 commercial and backyard flocks in the US as of Monday, affecting 18.91 million birds, according to the USDA. The agency requires farmers to report any cases and then start mass cullings to limit the spread. It's an approach the Trump administration blames for high egg prices. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said on CBS's 'Face the Nation' that he was working with the USDA secretary to find options to fight bird flu beyond culling chickens. He blamed the empty egg shelves at his grocery store on President Joe Biden's approach to the outbreak. 'That happened because they killed all the chickens, and so what we need to do is have better ways with biosecurity and medication and so on,' Hassett said. When the outbreak started in 2022, many commercial farms stepped up biosecurity measures like isolating chickens from wild birds, keeping workers' clothes and boots clean, and spraying disinfectants. 'You could always do more, sure,' Koci said. Some medications are in development, but nothing can cure chickens with bird flu. Culling is one of the most effective approaches, Koci said. 'As ugly as it is, just like with the wildfires in California, sometimes you have to cut all the trees down and dig a fire line to keep the fire from spreading from one neighborhood to another,' he said. 'We can't do anything to save that poultry house, but maybe we can dig enough of a line around it to save neighboring farms.' Some politicians have suggested vaccinating chickens. There are a few options available, and the Trump administration has given the conditional green light to one made by Zoetis. Zoetis initially got a contract to create a bird flu vaccine for chickens from the USDA's National Veterinary Stockpile in 2016. As with a human flu vaccine, the company has had to keep updating it to make sure it matches the virus strain in circulation. It appears to be effective; the US Fish & Wildlife Service used it in 2023 to protect endangered California condors. But the commercial chicken industry isn't so interested. For one thing, the US is the second biggest exporter of poultry products in the world, but overseas trading partners won't buy chickens vaccinated for bird flu The World Trade Organization doesn't forbid the sale of vaccinated birds outright, but other countries won't buy them. The seller has to demonstrate that the birds are completely free of bird flu, and vaccines can mask the presence of the virus. Studies show that vaccines can keep a chicken from developing severe disease, but they don't totally prevent infections. The National Chicken Council, the US industry's trade association, wrote to the Congressional Chicken Caucus last week to remind lawmakers that 'vaccinating any poultry sector – egg layers, turkeys, broilers, or ducks – will jeopardize the entire export market for all US poultry products.' The council said that if farmers can't trade overseas, the US would face a potential $10 billion-plus annual economic loss, as well as significant harm to its poultry business. 'Until we have written assurances and trade protections in place with all our trading partners,' the council said in an email to CNN, 'the National Chicken Council will continue to oppose vaccination for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza. 'We currently support USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) 'stamping out' policy to eradicate the virus,' it said. Vaccination would also add expense. There is no aerosolized or waterborne vaccine, so workers would have to pick up each one of millions of chickens and vaccinate them individually. Other countries have gone the vaccination route, and it seems to have helped. France started vaccinating millions of farmed ducks in 2023, along with biosecurity measures and enhanced surveillance. The number of outbreaks fell to 10 during the first six months of the campaign, compared with 315 over the same time period before vaccination began, according to the French Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty. In Western states, veterinarians would have to vaccinate additional animals beyond birds, said Rodrigo Gallardo, a professor in poultry medicine at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. Get CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team. Bird flu has moved into large numbers of dairy cows, with 973 dairy herds affected as of February 21, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 'That is just disseminating the virus all over the place,' Gallardo said. Several vaccines for bird flu are being tested in cows, but as with birds, 'vaccination is like the last resort for the US,' he said. Gallardo agrees that more needs to be done to manage bird flu outbreaks in the US, particularly as more humans get sick. The virus is still considered a low threat to humans, but as of Monday, 70 people in the US had been infected. Farm workers and people who have backyard flocks are at higher risk of infection, but scientists are concerned that the virus will spread further – and possibly adapt to spread between people. 'Right now, with all this virus floating around and all the birds and all the mammals and all the dairy cows getting infected, it is super difficult to control,' Gallardo said. CNN's Meg Tirrell and Aileen Graef contributed to this report.
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Could bird flu vaccines help tackle high egg prices? Experts say it's not so simple
On her first day on the job last week, new US Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins held a meeting to review the agency's options for controlling the bird flu outbreak and possibly help lower the price of eggs. In another meeting last week, Rollins met with two dozen farmers to hear their ideas about how to fight bird flu. She promised them relief. 'This problem wasn't created overnight, and it will take us a little time to tackle this issue, but we will take aggressive action to help our poultry farmers combat avian flu and to make eggs affordable again,' she said. On the campaign trail last year, President Donald Trump promised to bring all grocery prices down on 'day one.' But from December to January, grocery prices had the sharpest increase on a monthly basis in more than two years. Economists blame eggs. The price of eggs rose in that period at the fastest rate in nearly a decade, according to the latest Consumer Price Index. Unless something changes, Rollins' department predicts, egg prices will continue to rise more than 20% this year. One reason eggs are pricey and sometimes hard to find is an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly called bird flu. It's become a 'major' threat to commercial and backyard flocks in the United States, hitting egg-laying hens the hardest, according to the National Chicken Council. These hens account for more than 77% of the more than 162 million poultry affected by the virus since the outbreak began. The US has successfully dealt with sporadic outbreaks before, said Dr. Matt Koci, a professor in the Prestage Department of Poultry Science at North Carolina State University who specializes in immunology. Although poultry vaccines were studied, biosecurity measures and culling flocks with sick birds have been the strategy to take on the virus. Cases among chickens typically flared up only when wild birds, who can be carriers of the disease, would migrate through the US, Koci said. After they had flown on, case counts would fall to nothing. Now, though, there is so much virus in circulation that it's been turning up in resident birds and spilled over into other animals like cows, cats and even dolphins. Many scientists believe it is unlikely that the virus will ever disappear completely from the US again. 'Now that it's always here, kind of kicking around in the environment, we are seeing these little brush fires of cases popping up all the time,' Koci said. 'We were hoping it was a fluke, but this definitely seems like the new normal.' When a domestic chicken, turkey or duck gets sick, it's devastating for the flock. Wild birds can live with the virus, but commercial flocks often cannot. 'It depends on the strain, but within 48 hours, a farmer may go from seeing a few dead birds to half his flock, and certainly, within three to five days, they're all dead,' Koci said. Healthy members of the flock are often culled to help stop the spread. 'That's the reason we stamp it out. We're trying to kill them before the virus does, because it's a horrible way to die, and that helps us contain it.' In the past 30 days alone, bird flu has been confirmed in 134 commercial and backyard flocks in the US as of Monday, affecting 18.91 million birds, according to the USDA. The agency requires farmers to report any cases and then start mass cullings to limit the spread. It's an approach the Trump administration blames for high egg prices. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said on CBS's 'Face the Nation' that he was working with the USDA secretary to find options to fight bird flu beyond culling chickens. He blamed the empty egg shelves at his grocery store on President Joe Biden's approach to the outbreak. 'That happened because they killed all the chickens, and so what we need to do is have better ways with biosecurity and medication and so on,' Hassett said. When the outbreak started in 2022, many commercial farms stepped up biosecurity measures like isolating chickens from wild birds, keeping workers' clothes and boots clean, and spraying disinfectants. 'You could always do more, sure,' Koci said. Some medications are in development, but nothing can cure chickens with bird flu. Culling is one of the most effective approaches, Koci said. 'As ugly as it is, just like with the wildfires in California, sometimes you have to cut all the trees down and dig a fire line to keep the fire from spreading from one neighborhood to another,' he said. 'We can't do anything to save that poultry house, but maybe we can dig enough of a line around it to save neighboring farms.' Some politicians have suggested vaccinating chickens. There are a few options available, and the Trump administration has given the conditional green light to one made by Zoetis. Zoetis initially got a contract to create a bird flu vaccine for chickens from the USDA's National Veterinary Stockpile in 2016. As with a human flu vaccine, the company has had to keep updating it to make sure it matches the virus strain in circulation. It appears to be effective; the US Fish & Wildlife Service used it in 2023 to protect endangered California condors. But the commercial chicken industry isn't so interested. For one thing, the US is the second biggest exporter of poultry products in the world, but overseas trading partners won't buy chickens vaccinated for bird flu The World Trade Organization doesn't forbid the sale of vaccinated birds outright, but other countries won't buy them. The seller has to demonstrate that the birds are completely free of bird flu, and vaccines can mask the presence of the virus. Studies show that vaccines can keep a chicken from developing severe disease, but they don't totally prevent infections. The National Chicken Council, the US industry's trade association, wrote to the Congressional Chicken Caucus last week to remind lawmakers that 'vaccinating any poultry sector – egg layers, turkeys, broilers, or ducks – will jeopardize the entire export market for all US poultry products.' The council said that if farmers can't trade overseas, the US would face a potential $10 billion-plus annual economic loss, as well as significant harm to its poultry business. 'Until we have written assurances and trade protections in place with all our trading partners,' the council said in an email to CNN, 'the National Chicken Council will continue to oppose vaccination for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza. 'We currently support USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) 'stamping out' policy to eradicate the virus,' it said. Vaccination would also add expense. There is no aerosolized or waterborne vaccine, so workers would have to pick up each one of millions of chickens and vaccinate them individually. Other countries have gone the vaccination route, and it seems to have helped. France started vaccinating millions of farmed ducks in 2023, along with biosecurity measures and enhanced surveillance. The number of outbreaks fell to 10 during the first six months of the campaign, compared with 315 over the same time period before vaccination began, according to the French Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty. In Western states, veterinarians would have to vaccinate additional animals beyond birds, said Rodrigo Gallardo, a professor in poultry medicine at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. Bird flu has moved into large numbers of dairy cows, with 973 dairy herds affected as of February 21, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 'That is just disseminating the virus all over the place,' Gallardo said. Several vaccines for bird flu are being tested in cows, but as with birds, 'vaccination is like the last resort for the US,' he said. Gallardo agrees that more needs to be done to manage bird flu outbreaks in the US, particularly as more humans get sick. The virus is still considered a low threat to humans, but as of Monday, 70 people in the US had been infected. Farm workers and people who have backyard flocks are at higher risk of infection, but scientists are concerned that the virus will spread further – and possibly adapt to spread between people. 'Right now, with all this virus floating around and all the birds and all the mammals and all the dairy cows getting infected, it is super difficult to control,' Gallardo said. CNN's Meg Tirrell and Aileen Graef contributed to this report.
CNN
25-02-2025
- Business
- CNN
Could bird flu vaccines help tackle high egg prices? Experts say it's not so simple
On her first day on the job last week, new US Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins held a meeting to review the agency's options for controlling the bird flu outbreak and possibly help lower the price of eggs. In another meeting last week, Rollins met with two dozen farmers to hear their ideas about how to fight bird flu. She promised them relief. 'This problem wasn't created overnight, and it will take us a little time to tackle this issue, but we will take aggressive action to help our poultry farmers combat avian flu and to make eggs affordable again,' she said. On the campaign trail last year, President Donald Trump promised to bring all grocery prices down on 'day one.' But from December to January, grocery prices had the sharpest increase on a monthly basis in more than two years. Economists blame eggs. The price of eggs rose in that period at the fastest rate in nearly a decade, according to the latest Consumer Price Index. Unless something changes, Rollins' department predicts, egg prices will continue to rise more than 20% this year. One reason eggs are pricey and sometimes hard to find is an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly called bird flu. It's become a 'major' threat to commercial and backyard flocks in the United States, hitting egg-laying hens the hardest, according to the National Chicken Council. These hens account for more than 77% of the more than 162 million poultry affected by the virus since the outbreak began. The US has successfully dealt with sporadic outbreaks before, said Dr. Matt Koci, a professor in the Prestage Department of Poultry Science at North Carolina State University who specializes in immunology. Although poultry vaccines were studied, biosecurity measures and culling flocks with sick birds have been the strategy to take on the virus. Cases among chickens typically flared up only when wild birds, who can be carriers of the disease, would migrate through the US, Koci said. After they had flown on, case counts would fall to nothing. Now, though, there is so much virus in circulation that it's been turning up in resident birds and spilled over into other animals like cows, cats and even dolphins. Many scientists believe it is unlikely that the virus will ever disappear completely from the US again. 'Now that it's always here, kind of kicking around in the environment, we are seeing these little brush fires of cases popping up all the time,' Koci said. 'We were hoping it was a fluke, but this definitely seems like the new normal.' When a domestic chicken, turkey or duck gets sick, it's devastating for the flock. Wild birds can live with the virus, but commercial flocks often cannot. 'It depends on the strain, but within 48 hours, a farmer may go from seeing a few dead birds to half his flock, and certainly, within three to five days, they're all dead,' Koci said. Healthy members of the flock are often culled to help stop the spread. 'That's the reason we stamp it out. We're trying to kill them before the virus does, because it's a horrible way to die, and that helps us contain it.' In the past 30 days alone, bird flu has been confirmed in 134 commercial and backyard flocks in the US as of Monday, affecting 18.91 million birds, according to the USDA. The agency requires farmers to report any cases and then start mass cullings to limit the spread. It's an approach the Trump administration blames for high egg prices. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said on CBS's 'Face the Nation' that he was working with the USDA secretary to find options to fight bird flu beyond culling chickens. He blamed the empty egg shelves at his grocery store on President Joe Biden's approach to the outbreak. 'That happened because they killed all the chickens, and so what we need to do is have better ways with biosecurity and medication and so on,' Hassett said. When the outbreak started in 2022, many commercial farms stepped up biosecurity measures like isolating chickens from wild birds, keeping workers' clothes and boots clean, and spraying disinfectants. 'You could always do more, sure,' Koci said. Some medications are in development, but nothing can cure chickens with bird flu. Culling is one of the most effective approaches, Koci said. 'As ugly as it is, just like with the wildfires in California, sometimes you have to cut all the trees down and dig a fire line to keep the fire from spreading from one neighborhood to another,' he said. 'We can't do anything to save that poultry house, but maybe we can dig enough of a line around it to save neighboring farms.' Some politicians have suggested vaccinating chickens. There are a few options available, and the Trump administration has given the conditional green light to one made by Zoetis. Zoetis initially got a contract to create a bird flu vaccine for chickens from the USDA's National Veterinary Stockpile in 2016. As with a human flu vaccine, the company has had to keep updating it to make sure it matches the virus strain in circulation. It appears to be effective; the US Fish & Wildlife Service used it in 2023 to protect endangered California condors. But the commercial chicken industry isn't so interested. For one thing, the US is the second biggest exporter of poultry products in the world, but overseas trading partners won't buy chickens vaccinated for bird flu The World Trade Organization doesn't forbid the sale of vaccinated birds outright, but other countries won't buy them. The seller has to demonstrate that the birds are completely free of bird flu, and vaccines can mask the presence of the virus. Studies show that vaccines can keep a chicken from developing severe disease, but they don't totally prevent infections. The National Chicken Council, the US industry's trade association, wrote to the Congressional Chicken Caucus last week to remind lawmakers that 'vaccinating any poultry sector – egg layers, turkeys, broilers, or ducks – will jeopardize the entire export market for all US poultry products.' The council said that if farmers can't trade overseas, the US would face a potential $10 billion-plus annual economic loss, as well as significant harm to its poultry business. 'Until we have written assurances and trade protections in place with all our trading partners,' the council said in an email to CNN, 'the National Chicken Council will continue to oppose vaccination for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza. 'We currently support USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) 'stamping out' policy to eradicate the virus,' it said. Vaccination would also add expense. There is no aerosolized or waterborne vaccine, so workers would have to pick up each one of millions of chickens and vaccinate them individually. Other countries have gone the vaccination route, and it seems to have helped. France started vaccinating millions of farmed ducks in 2023, along with biosecurity measures and enhanced surveillance. The number of outbreaks fell to 10 during the first six months of the campaign, compared with 315 over the same time period before vaccination began, according to the French Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty. In Western states, veterinarians would have to vaccinate additional animals beyond birds, said Rodrigo Gallardo, a professor in poultry medicine at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. Get CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team. Bird flu has moved into large numbers of dairy cows, with 973 dairy herds affected as of February 21, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 'That is just disseminating the virus all over the place,' Gallardo said. Several vaccines for bird flu are being tested in cows, but as with birds, 'vaccination is like the last resort for the US,' he said. Gallardo agrees that more needs to be done to manage bird flu outbreaks in the US, particularly as more humans get sick. The virus is still considered a low threat to humans, but as of Monday, 70 people in the US had been infected. Farm workers and people who have backyard flocks are at higher risk of infection, but scientists are concerned that the virus will spread further – and possibly adapt to spread between people. 'Right now, with all this virus floating around and all the birds and all the mammals and all the dairy cows getting infected, it is super difficult to control,' Gallardo said. CNN's Meg Tirrell and Aileen Graef contributed to this report.
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Scouting for Food volunteers to collect donations for Utah's food banks Saturday
Scouting America's Crossroads of the West Council will host its 39th-annual Scouting for Food event on Saturday, Feb. 8, to collect donations for local food banks and pantries throughout Utah. Scouting for Food is a communitywide effort to help those facing food insecurity. The food drive is looking to collect nonperishable food items, such as canned goods, peanut butter and ready-to-eat snacks, as well as toiletries and paper products. Donations will be collected and sorted by volunteers and local partners, then distributed to food banks, pantries and shelters. The drive is being held in partnership with Arctic Circle, Bank of Utah, Red Hanger Cleaners, Smith's Food & Drug, Utah National Guard, YESCO, Young Automotive Group, KUTV's Souper Bowl of Caring and local food pantries in a combined effort to provide relief to the estimated 414,510 Utahns struggling with hunger. Utah National Guard service members will specifically aid in collecting and transporting these donations across Weber, Davis, Salt Lake and Utah counties. "We are proud to provide the personnel resources and the logistical power needed to deliver the food to the local pantries where it will make an immediate impact on families in need," said Brigadier General Kurt Davis, of the Utah National Guard. "We understand the challenges many families are facing in today's economic climate, and the Utah National Guard is committed to assisting our fellow citizens in meeting those most basic needs." Scouts will be stationed at 53 Smith's Food & Drug store locations across Utah to assist in collecting food donations as shoppers leave the store from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday. Donations will also be collected at participating Red Hanger, Young Automotive and food pantry locations throughout the state. Scouts will also collect bags of donations left on doorsteps for pick-up in neighborhoods throughout the state. A complete list of collection locations can be found here. Lorna Koci, chairwoman and coordinator of the Scouting for Food drive, noted that Scouting for Food's collection day is intentionally being held during the 2025 Super Bowl weekend where many will be shopping for groceries and supplies for game day festivities. While the National Retail Federation predicts Americans will spend a record-breaking $18.6 billion on Super Bowl-related purchases this year, Koci encourages those who are able to consider picking up additional items to donate to those in need. "Hunger is something that is so destructive," Koci said. "Children can't learn; parents can't work; they can't be kind to one another. Hunger is a basic need, and for those who have plenty, I think we have a responsibility to share with others who don't." Scouting for Food collected over 136,453 pounds of food in 2024 and is considered one of the largest youth-led service initiatives in the country. For more information about Saturday's event, visit the Scouting for Food website. 'We are proud to be part of such a meaningful tradition,' said Allen Endicott, Scout executive of Crossroads of the West Council, in a press release. 'Scouting for Food is an incredible opportunity for our youth to live out the Scout Oath, serving others and making a real difference in the lives of people who need it most.'
