FOOD DRIVE IDEAS

If you, your company, church, or social organization would like to do a food drive for Got Your Back San Diego, here are some ideas to make your efforts easier and more productive.

• Have a personal purpose that your organization can rally around. Articulate your purpose to your staff, employees, fellowship, and friends in ways they connect with and get excited about. For example, supporter Keller-Williams Realty in Carlsbad does an annual event called RED DAY (Renew, Energize and Donate), which is an all-day event dedicated to celebrating the Company’s commitment to improving local communities. For Red Day 2016, the entire staff spent all day doing a highly spirited, highly competitive food drive for Got Your Back that produced over 4,000 pounds of food. It was amazing! A little competition can dramatically increase the amount of food a drive produces. Think of ways to publicly honor or reward the top producers, i.e., a nice wall plaque, a free lunch with the boss, or a preferred parking spot for the month or year.

• Have a plan. Food drives can be an in-house event where people bring food to a single location, or they can be out in the marketplace in many different venues. For example:> One of our supporters, a church, holds a one-month-long food drive in-house every year. People are reminded about it every week in the church bulletins and sermons on giving and caring for the poor and less fortunate. Kids are also encouraged to bring a can of soup each week to Sunday School, and then, on the last weekend of the month, the entire congregation walks local neighborhoods, knocking on doors, handing their neighbors a pre-printed list of the food items needed, and asking for a donation. They also make sure everyone they see gets an invitation to attend church. This well-planned project generates 2000 to 3000 pounds of food for Got Your Back and creates awareness of the church in their community.
• Another group of supporters, a local Girl Scouts of America troop, spent all day on a Saturday going door-to-door through their local neighborhoods, asking people to donate food. They asked the donors to leave the food on their porches and said they would return the following day to pick it up. When they went back on Sunday to pick up the food, they found that some people participated, but most did not. Some people gave great food items, and others gave outdated items that had been in their cupboards for years. Perhaps the most discouraging thing was that a pack of coyotes came through the neighborhood that night and helped themselves to some of the food. The girls were disappointed with the 12 pounds of food that took two long days and a lot of walking to raise, but they were determined to try again. So the following weekend, they got permission from the manager at their local Ralph’s grocery store to stand outside of both entrances and hand a list of food items to every person entering the store, asking them to buy one of the items and donate it to Got Your Back on the way out. The response was phenomenal! Instead of one can of soup or beans, people bought 6 and 12 packs. Instead of one box of mac & cheese, people donated by the case. The girls worked in shifts of 2 hours with 2 girls at each entrance. In just 6 hours, they raised 3600 pounds of usable food items! A great plan!

• Tie a food drive to a special event. Often times you will see concerts, car shows, and other entertainment venues have a charity benefactor at an event. This is a great way to demonstrate that your business gives back to the communities that pay to attend your events. For example, every year Coastal Music Studios puts on a benefit concert called CHRISTMAS 4 KIDZ. The entire concert is children and their goal is to help other children here in San Diego by meeting practical needs such as food and other resources. For the last three years Got Your Back San Diego was one of the benefactors of their concert/food drive event. If you are a member of an organization that holds special events, linking up with a local charity is a great way to bring awareness to your organization and the charity.

These are just a few food drive ideas to help get your creativity flowing. There are many ways to have a successful food drive, and we always appreciate it when people share their ideas and experiences with us. If you have ideas you would like to share, please send them to (email)