How to Organize a Food Drive

With the increasing numbers of hunger across the United States, every little bit counts when it comes to donations and collecting food for the hungry. You can contribute by organizing your own food dirve in you community, town, office, or school. The contributions to local food pantries help immensely, not only during the winter months. Many food pantries have ‘high’ and ‘low’ times of year where their food supplies are minimal and need your support! Take part in a good cause and organize a food drive; simplicity can lead to success, and here are eight steps to lead you towards a rewarding opportunity:

1. Contact your local food pantries, food banks and and shelters, to check and see where your contributions are best suited. Some pantries already organize large-scale food drives, and may be willing to sponsor your local one complete with advertising materials, incentives, and public relations rewards. This initial contact will also help identify what is most needed in your area, or in selecting a neighborhood.

2. Create a theme. This will create a memorable design for your food drive, and will likely be rememberd most by everyone that you will pitch to. A theme will give your food drive an extra boost visually, and help to gather specific donors as well.

3. Create a goal. Whether it’s one hundred cans of non-perishable items, or a dollar amount of food, make it clear to all participants what the goal is for your particular food drive. Oftentimes this is enough to get people interested and invoved, and will help generate easier donations.

4. Make a list of potential donors: this will include local grocery and food companies, corporations, and organizations that may be able to donate larger sums of donations or food. These may also help make your food drive more prominent in the local community. Individual donors will be your friends, family, and coworkers and you can draft a list of potentials to pitch to.

5. Do some market research: look for companies that will match your donations; sometimes corporate sponsors are willing to coordinate with you to match a certain amount of food or donations, and can help make your food drive a successful event!

6. Pick a date or structure: Decide if you will host an event for donations to be bought to a specific location, or if this will be an ongoing effort of collecting donations and then reporting the final numbers at a later date.

7. Create an e-mail bulletin. This will go out to all potential donors, local press, or even just your contacts list to generate interest. If your food drive is taking place at a specific location, include all details here. If it will be an ongoing effort, you will need to make it easy and clear as to where donations are to be taken, and what is acceptable.

8. Acknowledge contributions creatively. Choose to thank each individual, donor, and sponsor in a unique way. Not only will this create a good network for future drives, but will also ensure that credit is given appropriately to all those who participate.

Organizing a successful food drive does involve some creative thinking, promotional skills, organization, and strategy. If you can get a large group of volunteers, friends, and coworkers involved, it can help to generate interest and donors for a very important cuase. Don’t wait until winter to organize a food drive! Most food banks and pantries will gladly accept donations year round, and can help you find many resources you may need in the process.