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Organize a Food Drive

Organize a food drive and make a difference in your community. The Food Bank's Food Drive Program helps individuals, businesses, faith communities, schools and other organizations run successful food drives, while raising awareness about the root causes of hunger.

Sign up to run your own food drive:

Resources for a Successful Food Drive

Some of our annual food drives include:

While the Food Bank relies heavily on organized food drives, you may also take food donations and deposit them into our food drive barrels at these year-round collection locations.

General Food Drive
Organize a food drive barrel at your workplace, school, or organization. Hunger is a year-round problem.

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Summer Food Drive (June 1 – Aug. 31, 2010)
For many children who rely on school lunch programs, summer vacation can mean the end to their only nutritious meal of the day. This summer, the Alameda County Community Food Bank is working hard to promote awareness about the summer lunch sites available throughout the county and providing people with the nutritious food that they need. Let’s work together to close the summer lunch gap and make a difference in the lives of children in our community!

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Scouting For Food (Nov. 20, 2010)
The Boy Scouts of America "Scouting For Food" Food Drive demonstrates how youth can have a positive impact on a serious problem in their own community and involves more than 40,000 Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Venturers and Explorers throughout the Bay Area. On Saturday, November 20, residents are asked to fill a bag with nutritious, non-perishable food, then place it outside their front doors before 9:00 a.m. Scouts from ten Bay Area councils will collect the food and deliver it to Bay Area Food Banks.
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Lenten Food Drive (March 9 – April 24, 2011)
This Lenten season, the Alameda County Community Food Bank invites local churches to help us feed the hungry in our community. While many Christians make the choice to adopt Lent as a time of fasting and abstinence, some of our neighbors do not have a choice. Your church can help by participating in our annual Lenten Food Drive, in which you can host food drive barrels and ask parishioners to donate food and/or money. The drive starts on Ash Wednesday and ends on Easter.

Participation in the Lenten Food Drive is easy. We will supply you with collection barrels and promotional materials to encourage donations.

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School Food Drive (March 1–31, 2011)
Help fight hunger! Sign up now for Alameda County Community Food Bank’s School Food Drive.

One in three children in Alameda County face the threat of hunger every day. The goal of the food drive is to collect 35,000 pounds of food for hungry families while educating students about hunger in their own community and empowering them to address local problems. Participation is open to schools in Alameda County from kindergarten through college.

March also marks National Nutrition Month. This food drive provides an opportunity to learn about healthy eating and nutritional guidelines. Food drive participants will receive collection bins as well as curriculum materials about hunger education and nutrition. Educational presentations are available upon request. Student groups are encouraged to visit the Food Bank and volunteer.

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Letter Carriers’ Food Drive (May 7, 2011)
Thousands of Bay Area letter carriers will pick up more than just the mail as they travel their routes on Saturday, May 7th during the "Stamp Out Hunger" food drive - they'll also collect food donations from the public. During the National Association of Letter Carriers’ (www.nalc.org) Food Drive, the nation's largest one-day effort, local postal workers collect non-perishable food donations
that people set out at their mailboxes. This huge collection drive raises food to help Bay Area Food Banks ready themselves for summer, when emergency food requests increase dramatically.

Last year's drive raised 71.3 million pounds nationwide. Bay Area residents are encouraged to put a bag of healthy, non-perishable food, such as canned vegetables and fruits, tuna fish, peanut butter, rice, dry beans and pasta, near their home or business mailbox on the morning of Saturday, May 9th. Letter carriers will pick up the food when the mail is delivered and bring it to a local food bank.

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For more information on organizing a food drive, email us or contact the Food Drive Department at (510) 635-3663, ext. 318.


© Alameda County Community Food Bank
Emergency Food Helpline (for Alameda County residents): (800) 870-FOOD (3663)