How to Organize a Food or Fund Drive For Disaster Relief

The following steps and ideas will help guide you and trigger your imagination for other creative ideas to raise food and money for disaster relief. If at any time you need assistance, please contact our Special Events and Food Drive Manager at 919-865-3049 or email

1. Register your food drive.

. Register your food drive as soon as possible so that we will have a record of your participation.
. Click HERE for On-Line Food Drive Registration. If you have questions, please contact the Food Drive Coordinator.

2. Plan ahead

. If time allows, you can select or determine a leadership committee to plan the strategy and themes for an organized food drive.
. Examples of themes include: Helping Hands Day;
Dare to Care; Dollars for Gas; A Handful of Coins Creates a Heartful of Love; We Care; Fill the Truck; In The Spirit of Giving. Auctions (both in person and on-line) have been successful in raising funds.
. Start by determining the beginning date and length of your drive and set a goal for the number of pounds and/or amount of money you will try to collect.
. You can also have a Virtual Food Drive or include this as a part of your food drive collection. A Virtual Food Drive is a web based tool which allows individuals to make financial contributions on-line to support a food or fund drive. If you decide to have a Virtual Food Drive be sure to include the name of your organization in the Comments & Notes field on the Virtual Food Drive checkout page. An on-line Virtual Food Drive can be personalized for your organization or group and linked to your website by contacting our Special Events and Food Drive Manager at 919-865-3049; email. Click HERE to see how a Virtual Food Drive works.

3. Focus your food drive collection

Click HERE for the list of most needed items to collect for disaster relief. Most needed items are grouped according to categories for particular items needed.
. No Glass, please!
. Relief organizations have found that it is often most practical to focus on one or two items that an organization says is needed rather than collect a variety of items and have boxes filled with mixed goods. Please consider donating items in bulk.
. If possible, please consider donating cases of a particular food or non-food item. Cases are usually easier to sort, pack, and distribute than individual units. (For example: a case of peanut butter is easier to handle than individual jars of peanut butter). Pooling resources and focusing on single item donations are good ways to manage the higher costs of purchasing items by the case.
. Encourage food drives and food collections that focus on a specific type of item: Peanut Butter Drive, Cleaning Supplies Drive, Nutritional Snack Food Drive, etc.
. If holding a Baby Items Drive, please collect diapers, infant cereal, and formula. If possible, please donate these items by the case. Loose jars of baby food cannot be accepted and will have to be discarded due to health regulations.

4. Collecting food and non-food essentials

. All food drive sponsors should plan to use their own food drive collection containers.
. Items can be collected in boxes (boxes are preferred over bags). Please use boxes that hold up to 50 lbs. in which to collect your items so that they may be easily lifted.
. Barrels do not make good collection containers, as they can weigh up to 800 pounds when filled with heavy items.
. Sponsors should plan to deliver collected items to the nearest Food Bank branch. To find a list of Food Bank branch locations, or to get driving directions to the branch location nearest you, click HERE.
. If you are using a large truck for your collection, please put the items collected into boxes and put the boxes onto pallets in the truck. Pallets can be unloaded much more efficiently than individual boxes placed on the floor of the truck. If you need pallets, please contact the Special Events and Food Drive Coordinator.
. When delivering collected items to the Food Bank on a trailer, pallets must be used.
. Pre-sort foods into categories as indicated on the Most Items Needed List prior to delivery to the Food Bank.
. DO NOT put cleaning supplies in the same box as food items at any time during your collection or sorting!
. The Food Bank cannot accept clothing.
. For more information, contact our Special Events and Food Drive Manager, email

5. Promote your drive

. Organize a kick-off event to build enthusiasm.
. Structure the event around your Food Drive theme.
. Hand out and/or e-mail the list of most needed items for disaster relief. This list can be downloaded or printed by clicking HERE.
. Encourage executives to send e-mail or voice messages showing their support for the food drive. If you are a school, have your principal announce the drive at an all school assembly.
. Use our mailbox/paycheck stuffers (PDF) to remind people about donating.

6. Make it easy to participate

. Consider a Virtual Food Drive for an easy and interactive way to participate. Be sure to include the name of your organization in the Comments & Notes field on the checkout page. An on-line Virtual Food Drive can be personalized for your organization or group and linked to your website by contacting our Special Events and Food Drive Manager at 919-865-3049; email. Click HERE to see how a Virtual Food Drive works.
. Place grocery bags at every employee or student desk.
. Throw a pizza party, school dance, or other event and charge a can or bag of food for admission.
. Create competitions with lots of categories - largest individual donation, most protein, or match your weight with pounds of food.
. Have Tuna Tuesdays, Peanut Butter Week, Single Serving Snack Day, etc. to encourage donations of high protein foods.
. Have your company match employee donations (for example $1 for each pound of food collected).
. Challenge your principal to do an amazing feat if your goal is met (for example, put his/her desk on the playground for a day).
. Hold a raffle for a weekend getaway; each bag of groceries donated earns a raffle ticket. Raffle prizes can be as simple as prime parking spaces or a dress down pass.
. Display daily or weekly totals in high traffic areas.

7. Deliver your donations to your nearest Food Bank branch

. To find the nearest Food Bank branch, drop-off locations, warehouse hours, or driving directions, please click HERE.
. If you have collected, filled and sorted 15 or more large boxes and are unable to deliver them, please contact Andrew Hefner at 919-865-3020; or by email to schedule a pick-up. Pick-ups should be scheduled 3-5 business days in advance.
. We will let you know how many pounds of food you donated after all items have been weighed.
. We are happy to provide individual receipts for cash donations. Please provide the names and addresses and we will mail receipts as quickly as possible.

NO GLASS PLEASE!
Your Support is Greatly Appreciated!