Organizing your Food Drive

A successful food drive requires both good organization and promotion. It is helpful to establish a team to plan the details - theme, dates, logistics.

Select a theme that is relevant to the interests of community members and touches peoples’ feelings about the need. Examples include a Peanut Butter Drive, Diapers for Babies, 5-A-Day Canned Fruits and Vegetables.

If possible, kick off your food drive with an event to raise awareness and generate enthusiasm.

Set a goal for your food drive - how many pounds of food or number of filled barrels do you want to collect?

Make sure collection sites are convenient and visible. They can serve as continuing publicity for your campaign.

Use flyers, posters or e-mail to raise community awareness about hunger and your food drive.

Remember to acknowledge contributions. Appreciation can be expressed in a number of ways - breakfast or luncheon to recognize participants for their efforts, prizes, gag gifts, jeans day, hours off for winners.

Incentives and competition between groups of participants can improve results and add interest.