I love the idea, and we have done it in our scholl for as long as i can remember. We assign each grade level a catagory of food that is from the list that the local Food Pantry has provided us with (such as 1st grade = cranberry sauce and chicken broth)...The grade level that has the greatest number of cans or you can do the weigh in type contest too, wins an extra 30 minutes recess, or a movie day, etc. We have even ran the program promoting no prize at all and tried teaching the kids that its nice just to give to someone that would otherwise not have a special meal for the Holidays. We did not experience a decrease in our goal that year in fact some of our area businesses got involved and we almost doubled our results. Its all in the promotion! Go for it!
Our contest for the canned food drive this year is going to be girls vs. boys... school wide! The winning gender will recieve popcorn at lunchtime as a treat. Just an idea....
Kelley
Madison PTO
Mount Vernon,WA
I would go for it. My husbands work did something like this once. They didn't go quite so elaborate, but I will say it kept the donations coming. Trust me if a family is needy they won't care how the food is wrapped! And if it sparks a donation then all the better.
When I was in high school we were asked to bring in canned/boxed goods or make a monetary donation towards a "basket" of food that would be donated to local needy families for Thanksgiving. The money was used to purchase a gift certificate for a ham or turkey so it was almost like a complete Thanksgiving dinner. We then had a contest as to how to present these baskets and the best basket would win a prize..of course I cant remember what that prize was...maybe no homework for a week! One year we wrapped all of the food in gold foil paper and made what looked to be a treasure chest and filled it. Some others I remember were wagons that looked like The Mayflower, and one was even a gumball machine. I want to do something similar at our school, but now I am thinking the contest may take away from the fact that we are donating food to needy families and do they really want a treasure chest full of gold wrapped soup that they have to unwrap? The thought and the intenion is there...what do you guys think?
