Top 5 Tips for a Successful Holiday Food Drive

It’s the holiday food drive season and at Tarrant Area Food Bank (TAFB), we want to share our top five tips for success for all of the food drive coordinators feeding the hungry!

Cheerleaders

Every good cause deserves to have an enthusiastic voice behind it and with food drives, that’s the role of the food drive coordinator and his/her team. Hunger is a real issue and worth fighting for so spread the word and get others excited to join you in your mission to feed hungry people!

We have great information about hunger and why it’s important that everyone receive food on our website at tafb.org. Here are some examples:

• One in four kids right here at home face hunger daily. (the national average is one in five)
• Tarrant County is one of the top 10 hungriest counties in the United States.
• $1 donated to TAFB equals five meals.

Once the cheerleader/s is selected, the first step is to fill out the food drive registration form on the TAFB website so you’ll know how to donate and can ask any questions before you get started.

Next, get your pom-pons ready and rally your teams to fight hunger!

Set Goals & Dates

Vague goals get vague results so set a solid goal for your food drive. As an example, 15 pounds of food can feed a family of four people for one full day. Setting a goal by weight is a great way to motivate teams to feed 100, 500, 1,000 families or more! And, TAFB will weigh your donations upon arrival so you’ll know exactly how many hungry people you were able to help.

Determine how long your food drive will last and let everyone know the beginning and ending dates. Most companies run their drives for two weeks.

Location, Location, Location

Just like in real estate, location is everything with food drives too. Select a highly visible, high traffic area to place your food boxes. Seeing the boxes fill up serves as both motivation and a reminder for employees to bring their goods to donate.

Promotion

Help employees know the types of foods that are most needed at the holidays. We have a list that you can incorporate into your internal or external messages. Send out emails and/or use your intranet site to send out the list, location and dates for your drive in advance and then provide regular follow-ups to let everyone know how the drive is going.

Tape up posters around your location as reminders about your drive. TAFB has posters available for print online or printed posters. Just shout if you need any!

Many companies also incorporate a financial giving option for those folks who want to give in that way. In your promotional material, let everyone know how to give financially too. You can set up a donation box near the food drive, encourage people to give online at tafb.org or host a a virtual food drive.

Have Fun!

• Pick a theme for your drive.
• Hold a food box decorating contest.
• Create a hashtag or selfie station for donors to share their good work on social media
• Create a competition and develop incentives for most pounds raised per department.

We hope your team has a meaningful experience collecting food for our community. If you need assistance at any time during your drive, just give us a call or explore our website for more information.

From all of us at TAFB, thank you for feeding others this holiday season!

**Donations can also be dropped off at TAFB, 2600 Cullen Street, Fort Worth from 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. Monday – Friday and from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. on Saturday. We will have holiday helpers available to assist you with unloading your donations.**