Youth Volunteers and Lions Club Team Up to Tackle Food Insecurity in Edgewood, Cedar Crest

EDGEWOOD, N.M. — The Edgewood Lions Club joined dozens of service clubs across New Mexico on Saturday for a synchronized statewide food drive aimed at stocking local pantry shelves amid rising community need.

The initiative mobilized between 20 and 25 Lions Club sites simultaneously across the state, including neighboring chapters in Moriarty and Cedar Crest, each collecting donations directly for their local pantries.

In Edgewood, the effort drew an intergenerational coalition. The local Lions Club partnered with youth from Scouts BSA Troop and Cub Scout Pack 640—which the club charters—alongside young men from the local DeMolay chapter.

“The need is just amazing; it’s unbelievable, and so we’re trying to do what we can,” said longtime Lions member and military veteran K.R. Scott, who began coordinating the local drive at 8 a.m. Saturday. “We have three different service organizations coming out today to support those in our community who have great needs.”

Lions Clubs International, founded in 1917 by Chicago businessman Melvin Jones, was established on the principle of community service without individual financial gain. While historically recognized for its global initiatives supporting vision health and diabetes awareness, hunger relief has become one of the organization’s primary global causes, prompting chapters to hold recurring food drives several times a year.

For Scott, seeing youth volunteers take the lead is central to the future of civic service. Civic and fraternal organizations across the country have faced shifting demographics, prompting targeted initiatives to recruit younger members. Lions Clubs sponsor youth-oriented divisions, including Leo Clubs for middle and high school students and the Cubs program for elementary-aged children.

“This is what we live for, because Lions over the years have sort of aged out,” Scott said. “We were really popular in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, and then we started getting gray hair. But now our mission is to get more young people involved.”

All nonperishable food items collected during Saturday’s event in Edgewood were delivered directly to the East Mountain Food Pantry to support East Mountain families.