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Food for ME
A Citizen Action Fact Sheet for Community Food Recovery

spoon and plateUniversity of Maine Cooperative Extension
Bulletin #4305

How to Organize a Community Food Drive

Despite the bounty of food here in the United States, one of our most complex and serious problems is hunger. Studies have shown that Maine children are hungry. In Maine, 7,500 children under 12 live in a household experiencing hunger. In addition, 31,000 Maine children under 12 live in households where there is hunger or risk of hunger.

One of the ways to combat the hunger problem in your area is a community food drive. This Food for ME fact sheet gives you a week-by-week task list of how to organize and run a food drive in your town.

Encourage neighbors and friends to join in! The goal of this community-based activity is to fill grocery bags with non-perishable foods from each of the food groups in the Food Guide Pyramid. The food bags are then donated to local food banks or similar food distribution facilities for distribution to people in need.

What’s Food Recovery?

Food recovery is the collection of wholesome food for distribution to the poor and hungry. It follows a basic humanitarian ethic that has been part of societies for centuries. Today, the four most common methods for food recovery are:

1. Field gleaning: The collection of crops from farmers’ fields that have already been mechanically harvested or on fields where it is not economically profitable to harvest.

2. Perishable food rescue or salvage: The collection of perishable produce from wholesale and retail sources.

3. Food rescue: The collection of prepared foods from the food service industry.

4. Nonperishable food collection: The collection of processed foods with long shelf lives.

Source: “A Citizen’s Guide to Food Recovery,” USDA, April, 1997.

Four to Six Weeks Before the Food Drive: Action Plan

  1. Get started. Establish a small committee to plan and coordinate the food drive. Select a chairperson and committee chairpersons for the following committees:
  2. Develop a plan for carrying out the food drive. Contact local food businesses, service agencies, churches, clubs, schools and your Cooperative Extension office. Invite them to help out. Describe the activity and discuss its benefits to them and the community. Develop a one-page flier describing the food drive. Make copies of it and a sample food list (see University of Maine Cooperative Extension bulletin #4304, A Food Pantry Wish List, a Food for ME fact sheet).

Four Weeks Before: Action Plan

  1. Follow up with people. Give a copy of your flier and food list to your contacts. Confirm their participation. Keep a current list of people, organizations and businesses that are interested in helping with the food drive.
  2. Contact local food banks or other food distribution facilities. Arrange for them to take the donated, non-perishable foods. Set a tentative delivery date.
  3. Check community, school and church calendars for “open” date(s) for the food drive. The food drive itself will run over a two-week period, with the last day or two set aside for putting together and delivering the food bags.
  4. Discuss plans for publicity.
  5. Contact schools, community recreational facilities, churches, grocery stores, etc., to see if they will donate space for food collection.

Two Weeks Before: Action Plan

  1. Contact local businesses and civic groups to see if they will help deliver food to food banks. Get a written commitment.
  2. Design a flier to advertise the food drive. Include a list of foods suitable for donation. (This could be a contest, with the design selected by the planning committee.)

One Week Before: Action Plan

  1. Check with food banks to confirm they still want the food donations. Make sure delivery date is OK. Get directions to the food banks as well as parking and unloading instructions.
  2. Schedule sessions to explain the food drive and review Food Guide Pyramid concepts, to people collecting food. Develop handouts for adult volunteers.
  3. Have youth and adult volunteers sign up for the following jobs:
  4. Distribute food drive flier throughout the community at supermarkets, places of worship, libraries, schools, etc.

Day Before: Action Plan

  1. Remind everyone that the food drive is beginning and that they have two weeks to collect food donations.

During the Food Drive: Action Plan

  1. Design the food collection site using the Food Guide Pyramid theme. Your design could include a floor lay-out as well as decorations. For example, you could put tape on floor in the outline of a triangle, then place tables in each food group section for the food. Or, you could design a giant pyramid wall collage of empty food packages and have food-group-labeled tables set up along the walls for the food.

Food Guide Pyramid

Day Before Food Assembly Day: Action Plan

  1. Prepare snacks and beverages for youth and adult volunteers.
  2. Set up registration/information tables at the entrance.
  3. Set up the Food Guide Pyramid food collection area. Include:
  4. Place empty food bags on assembly table.
  5. Mark area in front of collection site for “dropoff” parking.
  6. Put up poster or banner outside to advertise the food drive.

Assembly Day: Action Plan

  1. Welcome the volunteers.
  2. Review traffic control procedures with the traffic person, so things run smoothly during food dropoff.
  3. Greet food donators at the entrance and explain that they are to deposit food on the main receiving table.
  4. Instruct volunteers to separate the food into the food groups and place on the appropriate food group tables.
  5. Assemble food bags according to suggestions from the food bank.
  6. Load the food bags and any extra food items into the vehicles for transporting to the food bank. Call the food bank and let them know estimated arrival time.

Close-Out: Action Plan

  1. Ask volunteers to help clean up refreshment, collecting and loading areas.
  2. Close the activity by thanking all the volunteers.

How You Can Help Recover Food

In today’s world, where so many wake up in poverty and go to sleep hungry, each of us must ask: “How can I help?”

To get involved, use the ideas in the Food for ME fact sheets or call “1-800-GLEAN-IT,” a toll-free hotline of the USDA and National Hunger Clearinghouse.

Food Recovery on the Internet

Prepared by Extension Community Development Specialist Louise Franck Cyr

Source: Community Nutrition Action Kit, USDA, September 1996.

For more information, contact your University of Maine Cooperative Extension county office.


Published and distributed in furtherance of Acts of Congress of May 8 and June 30, 1914, by the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, the Land Grant University of the state of Maine and the U.S. Department of Agriculture cooperating. Cooperative Extension and other agencies of the U.S.D.A. provide equal opportunities in programs and employment.

Food for ME Fact Sheet Series
A Citizen Action Fact Sheet for Community Food Recovery
Series includes:

To order the entire series, use bulletin #4315.


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