Host a Food Drive

Hosting a food drive is a fun, hands-on way to help solve hunger.

Getting Started:

  • Form your committee and choose a point person.
  • Select your dates. Make sure you give yourself time to plan and promote your drive.
  • Set a goal so you have something to work toward.
  • Promote your food/fund drive on social media and send a press release to help spread the word. Be sure to tag us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn!
  • Download our poster template and enter your food drive details.

Food Drive Requirements:

  • Collect only non-perishable food items.
  • NO glass – Please! Glass can chip and break in barrels.
  • DO NOT mix non-food items with food, even if it is sealed. The Health Department requires us to throw away the entire box or barrel of food if there are non-food items in the container.
  • You can collect donations in any container: Amazon boxes, grocery bags, plastic tote bins – whatever container you have on hand will work just fine. Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin does have large donation boxes available, however they will have to be picked up. (in either Milwaukee or Appleton)

Make It Fun:

  • Create a Competition: Pit classrooms, departments, teams against each other to see who can raise the most food/funds. Offer a pizza party to the winning team as an incentive.
  • Jeans Day: Allow employees to wear jeans if the goal is reached or donation made.
  • Create A Theme: Pick a theme for your food drive or a theme for each day. Examples include Pasta Day, PB&J Day, etc.
  • Wage a Penny War: Give each department, floor, etc. a large glass jar and see who can fill the jar the fastest. Donate the money collected. We can turn $1 into 4 meals.
  • Company Matches: Challenge your company to match the pounds of food collected by donating a dollar amount per pound of food.
  • Volunteer: To celebrate your food drive’s success, schedule a volunteer session for your friends, family, or company.

Wrapping It Up:

It is a tremendous help to us if you can deliver your donations to the food bank when your food drive concludes. You can drop off any time Monday – Thursday from 8:00a to 5:00p, or until 3:00p on Fridays – no appointment needed. If you cannot deliver, please contact Jessecca Miller or jmiller@feedingamericawi.org to make arrangements.

Consider hosting a virtual food drive:

For every $1 donated, Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin can provide $10 in groceries. Donation dollars are used to purchase produce, meats, and dairy that we can’t get through traditional food drives. Virtual food drives are easy to share with friends and family over social media, and can even be set up as a head-to-head contest. Click below to get started.