Food Drive 101
Hosting a food drive is a great way to get involved with the Food Pantry at your office, place of worship, school, or on your block. During the CAN DO Community Challenge, your food drive will also help us reach our goal of raising $100,000 and 10,000 items to receive a $25,000 match from a group of local philanthropists.
Register Your Food Drive
Please register your food drive so that we can best accommodate your donation, both in terms on when you’ll be dropping off, and how much you’re expecting. Especially for large drives, we like to schedule additional volunteers to sort and organize donations.
Set A Goal
We recommend setting a goal for how much you want to raise, in addition to a timeframe for your drive. By doing this, it’s easier to encourage participation and a tight timeframe puts urgency on your drive.
You may also want to pick a theme (baby food, whole wheat, spices…) to help your food drive stand out. Bonus if you come up with a cleaver name for your theme!
Prioritize High-Impact Donations
We encourage donors to prioritize higher impact donations as part of their giving. The highest impact gift is dollars. The same can of black beans you purchase at the store for $1, we can buy for $0.38 through our local food bank. On average, for every $1 you give, we can purchase 3 meals worth of food.
Items we can not purchase ourselves, or are harder for us to procure, are also encouraged. These include:
- Baby food & formula
- Feminine hygiene produces
- Spices & condiments
- Diapers
- Toiletries (especially full-sized)
- Cleaning supplies (dish soap, laundry detergent, all-purpose cleaner)
- Whole wheat pasta (hard to purchase)
- Brown rice (hard to purchase)
We also promote healthy food items, including:
- Whole grains
- Canned tuna/chicken
- Low-sodium soups
- Nut butters
- Low-sodium beans