Fall has arrived, and as we approach the holiday season many businesses and organizations host food and fund drives to help stock the pantries for those in our community struggling with food insecurity. Food and fund drives are a great way to get your employees, organization members, classmates, neighbors, and customers involved in fighting hunger in your local community.
God’s Pantry Food Bank accepts unopened, nonperishable food items from food drives. Food drives are valuable to us because they provide our pantries with product variety that we don’t always have available. While we commonly have canned vegetables and beans in stock, it’s less common for us to acquire canned fruits, dry goods and spices, condiments, soups, and breakfast foods. Pantry visitors desire these types of items, and food drives are the way most of these items find their way to our pantry shelves.
But isn’t it better to give money?
In some ways, yes. Donating funds definitely allows you to help more people with the same amount of money. For instance, when you visit the grocery store you can usually buy 1-2 items with $1. Because we are purchasing in large quantities and from manufacturers and wholesalers, we can turn that $1 into 10 pounds of food! But the product variety that we acquire from food drives is important as well, and that makes food drives an important part of how we gather items for our pantries.
Pairing a fund drive with your food drive is ideal, because it offers your audience multiple ways to give. At God’s Pantry Food Bank, we can work with you to provide an online giving option and let you know how much was raised through your fund drive. If you are tracking the pounds of food collected by your food drive, the dollars given can easily be translated into pounds. For many, giving online is a more convenient way to donate to a food drive, so you can’t go wrong by offering both options!
Follow the food!
Because our service area is large, we are often asked where the food from food drives ends up, and the answer depends on the county where you host the food and fund drive.
In Fayette County, food that is collected from food drives stocks the four pantries that we operate through our Fayette County Pantry Program. In all other counties in our service area, we can connect you with one of our partner agencies in that county, and the food you collect will stay in your county. The food you collect will help individuals and families struggling with food insecurity in your local community.
How do you have a successful food and fund drive?
Use our toolkit!
Our food drive team has created a toolkit to help you with planning and advertising your food and fund drive. It’s got a lot of helpful information and will help you get off to a good start.
Talk to us!
When you plan your food drive, don’t hesitate to contact us! We can provide you with the most up-to-date information on what food items are currently most needed, and we definitely need to hear from you in order to set up your online fund drive. In some cases we can provide barrels for your food drive, and if you collect more than 400 pounds of food, we can even schedule a pickup.
Give it a theme or make it a competition!
Fun themes get people excited, and creating a competition always provides a boost, because everyone likes to win!
If you’re planning a food drive this holiday season, contact contact D’wan at dwcarey@godspantry.org, or call 859-288-5323.
