Civic Organization Food Drive Action Plan

Four to Six Weeks Before the Food Drive

1. Get started. Establish a small committee to plan and coordinate the food drive. This should include organizing, promotion and publicity, collection and delivery.
2. Contact Loaves & Fishes. Let them know when you plan to run the drive and set a delivery date. This is especially important during our busy holiday delivery seasons. You can deliver food during any open hours or by appointment. Please call 978-772-4627 or email us
3. Determine the area to be served. Town, church, scout group…
4. Decide the scope of your drive. Are you targeting the town, church, scout group…?
   When will the drive happen and how long will the collection time be? It works well to collect food for at most a week. Set a goal for your drive such as a total number of bags or items of food. Be creative! (Some civic groups designate an area to distribute bags. For example, the Scouts of Shirley distribute bags to each home with a letter stapled to the bag explaining about the food drive and to place items in the bag. The scouts then come and pick up the bag from the home on a specified date within a specified time. Another ex: Churches run a drive every month and collect one item each month…May – Shampoo, June – peanut butter.)
5. Designate an area for drop off and collection of food.

Two Weeks Before

1. Design a flyer/letter to advertise the food drive. Include a list of foods suitable for donation, collection period and place. Loaves & Fishes has a sample letter and flyer for you.
2. Designate an area for drop off and storage of food during the drive. A highly visible area is often a good reminder and motivator for participation.
3. Determine if you plan to presort food for the Pantry. Loaves & Fishes will be able to guide you on sorting food by type or category should you choose to do this before you deliver it.
4. Organize people to deliver to the Pantry. Make sure your deliverers are able to lift bags or boxes of food safely. If you need additional delivery help, please contact Loaves & Fishes.

One Week Before: Action Plan

1. Have youth and adult volunteers sign up for the following jobs:
   • Set up major collection site
   • Count, weigh and/or sort food items
   • Load food bags/boxes into delivery vehicles
   • Deliver food to the Pantry (see website for open hours)
2. Put up posters or banners in key locations around town advertising the food drive. Loaves
   & Fishes has a few posters that you can use, just contact our office and we will get them
   to you.
3. Designate a collection site where food can be stored. Store in a prominent place for the
   duration of the collection period so people can be reminded to bring in there donation.
4. Collect boxes for sorting. Liquor boxes are best as they are sturdy and not too large.

Sorting and Delivery Day: Action Plan

1. Place empty food bags/boxes on assembly table. Designate areas for sorted food to be placed.
2. Fill food bags/boxes, sorting according to suggestions from Loaves & Fishes. Count either the items or the number of bags/boxes of food collected. Take pictures of the food and the volunteers!
3. Load the food bags and any extra food items into the vehicles for transporting to Loaves & Fishes. Call Loaves & Fishes at 978-772-4627 and let us know your estimated arrival time. We’ll make sure we have able arms to help unload the food. If you need someone to pick up the food for you, just contact our office and we will arrange a pickup.
4. Fill out a Donation Record at the Pantry with the names of your key volunteers and an address where we can send a thank-you card.

After the Drive

1. Announce the results be proud of your efforts!
2. Share Loaves & Fishes’ appreciation Loaves & Fishes would be very interested in
   running a press release of your efforts. At a minimum, we’d like to include you in our
   quarterly newsletter.
3. Make some notes about what went well, what needed tweaking for the future, and
   brainstorm any additional creative ideas for making the drive fun.