We do a very successful food drive during Catholic Schools Week. The students all bring food items and we weigh their class donation to proclaim a winner. Then we form a human food passing chain from our school to the food pantry. As we pass each can and box down the line, the students realize how much food there is and can see where it is going. Our line stretches two blocks along a busy street so we get lots of waves and honks for our good work, and it is great fun for the students.
We do one every year at our school. It's called the "March Madness" food drive. We hold it during the ACC tournament week and students bring donations in to vote who will win the tournament by placing the food donation in a specially marked box of their ACC team choice. The students wear team shirts on Friday and the PTO provides a special healthy snack in the afternoon and the principal announces the scores thru out the day. We use it to supplement our Backpack program for students extended breaks and summers. The kids are very excited about it and the donations have been going up each year.
Try this one- " STUFF the truck" and have the truck/vehicle there that is going to transport all of the food to the food bank. Kids would love being able to bring the goods to the truck.
I'm an elementary school counselor. Our kids love dress up days so during our food drive I had the kids dress in a certain colors that went with our food drive. On one day I would have them dress in green and then on that day everyone was to bring a food item that was green like green beans, peas etc. On another day they dressed in yellow and brought a yellow food item like corn. It has been a huge hit! Dressing up reminds them to bring food, helps the little ones learn color, and is fun seeing all the same color in the halls. It has really worked great at our school!
Hope you'll all connect with www.schoolsserve.org
. It's a brand new non-profit dedicated to all things regarding school food drives. The kit has tons of great ideas and planning tools and posters and the like. And the Facebook page for Schools Serve is also a great place for connecting with others.
Finally, Schools Serve is also tallying the results of all school food drives this school year. Hope you'll add your results to the count.
Tim Sullivan
Founder, PTO Today
Founder, Schools Serve
