Food Drives generally last from 1 day to a month. It all depends on what type of event that works best for your group. If you're hosting one in your neighborhood, then a 1 day blitz of picking up food might make sense. If you're hosting this at a location where people can casually drop off food over a period of time then 2-4 weeks is usually best. 

Don’t hold a food drive in the middle of nowhere; go where the people are! Offices, schools, grocery stores, central gathering spots in town, and sporting events are all great locations!

Again, consider if you're hosting your food drive over a period of time or just 1 day. Find a location where you can store the food safely over the course of your food drive. If you're hosting it in 1 day, then consider a drive-thru/dropoff location option as well. 

If you are hosting your food drive outdoors, don't forget to make a rain plan. 

Still need a few ideas? Here are 50 locations you can host a food drive.

Offering an incentive or a prize to donors can help create energy and excitement about your food drive.

Holding a food drive at a school? Reward the class who collects the most with a pizza party. Holding a food drive at work? Set a goal and promise the staff a free bagel breakfast if they reach it. Discount coupons, entries to a raffle, and admission to an event are other ways to persuade potential donors.

Here's a list of ways to incentive people to donating food. 

You can bring your food donations to any food bank or pantry. Not sure where the closest food bank is? Try searching on Feeding America or FoodPantries.org. Still not sure where to bring your food? Email [email protected] and we can recommend a local food pantry.

The food bank will provide you with a weight receipt, which you should send back with our Food Drive Donation Weight Receipt Form. Send us your weight receipt and pictures of your food drive, and you'll receive a free Move For Hunger T-Shirt!

Not everyone can (or will remember) to bring food to donate. Therefore, it's always a great idea to set up a fundraiser to go along with your food drive. It's really easy to add, simply reach out to our team, and we'll get you set up for you.  

Every $10 you collect helps provide over 25 meals to communities in need. 

In an effort to be more sustainable, Move For Hunger does not provide boxes. That said, here are some tips to collect some in your area: 

• Reuse any boxes they might have lying around.
• Ask your coworkers, volunteers, or other people helping out to keep their boxes leading up to the event. 
• You can also ask for free boxes at your local grocery store.
• Call up local restaurants and hardware stores, as they might have some too.

Feel free to decorate them to your heart’s content. Seriously, go bananas and send photos.

Let’s face it: everything is easier with a little help.

Ask family members, friends, colleagues, and classmates to help spread the word and lend a hand on the day of the event. Here's a short guide of how they can help out.

Make sure people need to know where to drop off their food. You can create your own sign or download this sample one here. 

As you pack all of this donated food, it's important to pack the bags or boxes correctly. 

• Try to separate types of food like cereal in one box and cans of vegetables in another. This will help the food bank with sorting once the food is delivered. 
• Cans of food can be heavy, especially when you start filling up a box. Don't fill up boxes with cans more than halfway to avoid breaking the box (or your back)

Here are some of the most requested items from food banks. You can download this list to print out here. 

• Peanut or other nut butters
• Chicken broth
• Canned tuna and chicken
• Canned fruit in light syrup
• Canned veggies
• Canned soups, stews, and chili
• Beans, canned or dried
• Boxed mac & cheese
• Pasta, rice, and quinoa
• Pasta sauce
• Baby food and formula
• Shelf-stable milk (rice, almond, soy)
• Cereal, oatmeal, and granola
• Spices (including basic seasonings like Salt & Pepper)

Wondering how you could take awesome pictures you can share with Move For Hunger? 

Whether you are a mover, volunteer, or Move For Hunger partner, we’d love to share the pictures you take the next time you host a food drive, fundraiser, or help move food during a transport!

Here are our top 7 tips for taking high-quality pictures and click here to send us your photos and video.

Fill out this form to get your food picked up. Please keep in mind that our partners are volunteers who assist with these pickups around their regularly scheduled jobs, so we try to give them a 30-day window to pick up food donations.

If you would rather bring the donations to the food bank yourself, please let us know and we can suggest one in your area. The food bank will provide you with a weight receipt, which you should send back with our Food Drive Donation Weight Receipt Form.

*Please note: While we are in most locations, we aren’t everywhere (yet). But we’ll do our best to help you out!

You're still awesome in our book! 

You can bring your food donations to any food bank or pantry. Not sure where the closest food bank is? Try searching on Feeding America or FoodPantries.org. Still not sure where to bring your food? Email [email protected] and we can recommend a local food pantry.

The food bank will provide you with a weight receipt, which you should send back with our Food Drive Donation Weight Receipt Form. Send us your weight receipt and pictures of your food drive, and you'll receive a free Move For Hunger T-Shirt!