Food Drive Tips

 

 

We’ve been involved with a ton of food drives over the years and we’ll be the first to tell you that no matter how young or little you may feel, you have the power to make a real difference in your community.  Follow these tips to ensure your food drive is a success:

 

 

  • Get your friends on board. You don’t want to do this alone so recruit anyone and everyone to help you out. Pull the guilt trip and/or friendship card if you have to – hey, it’s for a good cause!

 

  • Spread the word. You need to market your drive! Make posters and fliers ahead of time giving people the details. Call your local newspaper, radio or TV station to let them know about the event and get some coverage.

 

  • Create a Facebook event and use your own circle of friends to get the word out about the drive. The more people know about it, the more donations you’ll get.

 

  • Get attention. Use some creativity to decorate the boxes/barrels. You can even put it on t-shirts, pants, whatever!

 

  • Make it easy. People are more likely to help if they don’t have to do much work, so offer to pick up the donations at their houses or set up a collection bin in the front of your school or in the lunchroom. As a matter of fact, DO BOTH!

 

  • Show off the goods. Display the donations you’ve gotten to get other teens into the mix. You may even want to set a goal and give a daily update on how close you are to achieving your goal. Create huge poster boards that you can display in a prominent place. If it’s a food drive, you can set a goal of 1,000 items and update the sign everyday with the number collected, and the pounds still to go.

 

  • Close down. Officially end the drive by posting the number of donations you collected in the main collection area and the Facebook event. Make sure to give special thanks to everyone who chipped in.

 

  • Now that you’ve got the goods. Deliver your donations to a food bank or pantry in your area. Make sure you call beforehand to make sure someone will be there to accept the food.

 

  • Drive ideas. Can’t think of anything off the chain to raise donations for your cause? Check out these ideas from our friends at DoSomething.org!