How to Organize a Food Drive for CFBNJ
Organizing a food drive is a fun, stress-free way of connecting with and serving the community. While hunger is a serious issue, it’s important to remember that joy and fun can be part of the solution. When you host a food drive, you help feed your neighbors in need and connect with other service-oriented people along the way.
Help serve your hungry neighbors and raise critical awareness for CFBNJ’s mission by organizing a food drive in your community. Whether you’re an individual or part of a company, organization, or community group, you can easily collect and deliver most needed food items to either of our two facilities.
Follow these six easy steps to host your very own on-site food drive for CFBNJ. You can also download our food drive toolkit for helpful tips, checklists, printable signs, and more.
1. Build your team
Gather your friends, family, coworkers, schoolmates, neighbors, or club members to help you organize your food drive. Together, you can split up responsibilities and determine the next steps towards a successful drive.
2. Decide when and where to hold your food drive
Depending on your goals and resources, you might hold your food drive on a single day, over several days, or even over several weeks. It could tie in with a special day, like a holiday, birthday, or other occasion.
Host your food drive in a convenient location to encourage participation. For example, if you’re asking members of your church to donate, hold the drive on a Sunday morning in the church’s gathering space. You might hold your drive in your office, community center, or school. A kids’ group might stand outside of a local grocery store and hand out lists of most needed items, encouraging shoppers to purchase items on the list and give them to the group on the way out.
3. Make a goal
Check out our list of most needed food items and decide what type of food you’ll collect. Soups, spices, and canned vegetables are just a few item categories you might focus on. You can also collect the food needed to hold a special kit packing party or even hygiene products, like diapers and period supplies.
Set a poundage goal and get participants excited to reach it!
4. Ready your food drive supplies
Prepare for the drive by gathering the necessary supplies:
- Collection bins or donation boxes (choose sturdy containers that are also light enough to transport)
- Tables and chairs (if needed)
- Food drive table signage and “Donate Here” signs to attach to collection containers. These can be printed from CFBNJ’s food drive toolkit.
- Most needed items lists and other relevant brochures and one-pagers
5. Market your food drive
Raise awareness! Promote your drive through social media, emails, flyers, word of mouth, and more. Find creative ways to encourage participation in your community. Publicize your goal and ask people to help you meet it. You can check out our food drive toolkit for some templates and ideas.
6. Deliver your donation
Once your food drive is over, deliver what you collected to one of our warehouses! Finding reliable transportation and determining who will help you should be part of your earlier planning. Our Hillside and Egg Harbor Township facilities both have metal bins outside where donations can be left.
When to drop off your food donation:
- Monday – Friday from 7 am – 3 pm
- Saturday from 9 am – 1 pm
If your donation exceeds 500 pounds, it is eligible to be picked up by CFBNJ. Please contact us to arrange a scheduled pick-up.
Register Your Food Drive