Thank you for your interest in hosting a food drive for Papa’s Pantry. 
We are a year round food outreach that depends on community drives “year round”.  Here are some proven steps for a successful event.  Of course, each can be customized to fit your organization’s needs, timing and available volunteers.  We will also publish your drive on our website for further exposure. 

Step 1:  Determine the timing:  Beginning dates, ending dates, if one day, then start and stop time.
 Step 2:  Establish your target market:  Neighborhoods, Businesses, Schools, Churches, Clubs, etc.
Step 3:  How will the food be collected? Donation drop off locations or door-to-door pick-ups?
Step 4:  Advertise to your market:  Flyers work great!  Give at least one week’s notice.  Keep in mind that if you give too much notice people may forget; not enough and people will not have time to plan. 
Step 5:  Posters and signs:  Check to see if the school, business or neighborhood will allow signage to further advertise the drive and to serve as a reminder.
Step 6:  Food Collection!   Have fun!
Step 7:  Food to Papa’s Pantry

Suggestions for various food drive efforts:
Businesses:  Customer-based food drives typically last one week to one month.  You’ll want enough time to plan ahead to market to your cliental announcing this community service effort and encourage their participation.  

Employee-based food drives (more appropriate for a larger company not dependant on the walk-in general public, or a corporate setting), timing from one day to one week proves to be successful. 

Donation barrels/tubs and/or brown paper bags with brightly colored flyers generally work well in these environments and can be reinforced by additional flyers or signage.

Neighborhoods (this works great for children and scout troops!):   Usually one pick-up date between established pick-up times.  Saturdays work best.  Approximately one-week prior, distribute brightly colored flyers on brown grocery bags with information such as the name of YOUR organization, Papa’s Pantry name and website, a contact phone number (this should be an older teen or adult), the date and times of the pick up, and a list of the needed items.  Have an understanding of your “pick-up” strategy to include in the flyer information. 

Will you ask the homeowners to place the filled bag on their doorstep WITH the brightly colored flyer attached during the pick-up times?  This will allow the bags to be seen easily from the street.  Or will you have your volunteers knock door-to-door?   This second method results in a much more profitable effort, but it is more time intensive.  It is suggested that teams of at least two work together, and NEVER should anyone go inside the home of someone who is not a close personal friend.  With either method, it is advisable that an adult drive door to door with the walkers so there is a place to put the food once collected.  Or the walkers can pull a wagon along with them and can drop off their collection to an adult with a vehicle at a nearby corner as needed.  Please remember to say “Thank You!”

Places of Worship:  Brown paper bags with brightly colored flyers combined with a strategically located donation barrel works best.  Although in this setting, either step independently will net good results.  It is best to give one to two weeks notice in the weekly bulletin and allow at least 2 weeks donation time. 

Privacy Statement:
We are often asked about opportunities for children to participate in process whereby the families actually receive the food..  Papa’s Pantry agrees that these are important values to teach, however, we are not able to accommodate such requests.  To best maintain the privacy and respect of the families we serve, only Papa’s Pantry’s trained volunteers are permitted to have "family" contact.  We are happy to come to your organization to give a presentation, explaining the common circumstances the families may experience and the processes in place to offer help.