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Host a Food Drive

Hosting a Food Drive is a Great Way to Help!

In addition to collecting food at the annual Foodstock event in October, we rely heavily on people like you to run mini food drives all year long! If you’d like to host a mini food drive, please email Bob and ask to be invited to the next team meeting. He can also arrange a specific meeting just to help you plan your event if necessary. Either way, you’re not on your own! We’re here to help.

Below you will find ideas to help you run a food drive in various places. Marketing material on our Downloads page can be used as templates to help you promote your event. Feel free to download and customize them for your own use. If you need help creating custom graphics for your event, just email Chris for assistance. He can also help promote your food drive via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Schools

At the elementary and middle school level, work through the administration for approval to run a food drive. Motivate young kids to donate food by giving them something fun in return. We found wristbands work well for this age group (i.e. bring in four cans of food and get a free wristband). We have wristbands in various colors so the kids can bring in more food and collect them all! Just email Dee to obtain the wristbands.

At the high school level, it’s all about competition! Work through the Student Council to run your food drive and get the classes to compete against each other for something special, such as a dress down day in a private school.

Churches

Church-going people love to help those in need! You’ll need to work through the appropriate committee at your church to arrange a food drive that is acceptable to them.

Sporting Events

There are lots of ways to run food drives at sporting events. For example, the Marlboro Soccer Association collects food at their annual soccer tournament, and Peddie Aquatics collects food and donations at their Thanksgiving Classic.

The most important step here is to work through the event coordinators to notify all the participants in advance that food will be collected at the event. Also, sports teams love to compete, so be sure the winning team gets some type of prize. You can often find a sponsor to donate money for a pizza party or free entry into the tournament.

Another method is to collect food at all of your team’s home games, like the Freehold Boro Music Parents Association collects food at all the home football games.

Businesses

If you own a business, or know someone who does, there are many ways to help Foodstock! You can put a donation box in your store and give something in return for people who bring food, such as a discount or free upgrade.

An alternative is to simply collect cash or donate proceeds. For example, Hands On Salon runs an annual Cut-a-thon where all proceeds for the day are donated to Foodstock.