Fight Hunger with a Food Drive: A Step-by-Step Guide

Hunger impacts every single county in the U.S. Local food banks, shelters, and soup kitchens depend on donations from generous individuals like you to keep their shelves stocked. Hosting a food drive can be a simple yet impactful way to make a difference in your community.

Every year, food banks experience a serious decline in donations after the holiday season–but hunger doesn’t take a spring break or a summer vacation. Your support during this time can make a real difference in the lives of those in need throughout the year.

Did you know: annually, 30 million students in the U.S. receive free or reduced-price meals during the school year? When school ends, so do the meals, and families must turn to food banks for help. 

So why a food drive?

Food drives directly address food insecurity by providing food banks with nutritious options while also helping reduce food waste by donating surplus food. 

With potential cuts to SNAP on the horizon and rising grocery bills, there’s an increasing demand for assistance from food banks and pantries – making food drives more important than ever. No one should worry about their next meal and organizing a food drive is an easy yet impactful way to fight hunger while supporting your local food banks.

Average annual food-at-home prices were 1.2 percent higher in 2024 than in 2023.

There are people facing hunger in your community today so let’s start planning your food drive. If you’re in a pinch here’s a quick guide and an in-depth step-by-step guide to fighting hunger with a food drive.

Quick Guide:

1. Pick a Place and Time
2. Get the Word Out
3. Collect Food Donations
4. Coordinate Delivery/Drop off

1. Plan Your Food Drive

To start taking action, visit our food drive page. Whether you’re planning a conference, hosting a company team building event, a property management company, or just an awesome person combating hunger, you can host a food drive with Move For Hunger! 

After filling out the form, select a date and time that works best for you. Food drives can last as long as a month, week, or day. Once you select your dates, location is everything!

Our best tip is to go where the people are. Set up a donation station in your workplace, office, school, neighborhood grocery store, or even at a local sporting event! For more ideas, here are the 50 best locations to organize your next food drive.

Now that the location is picked let’s get the excitement going. 

2. Get the Word Out

Promote Your Drive 

Once you’re signed up for a food drive with us, you’ll receive customizable graphics and flyers! These graphics are easily accessible through our Canva backlinks and include tutorials so you can add your own logo and text. 

Post your flyers in high-traffic areas such as local businesses, in the neighborhood, or around the office. Use graphics to inform your company in an email or share the news on social media! As the event gets closer, it's important to remind people. If your food drive is longer than one day, try sending updates on donation amounts throughout to maintain momentum and excitement.

Engage Your Community 

Hunger may exist in every county, but you can become a part of the solution. Invite your community to spring clean their pantries or pick up a few cans the next time they’re at the store. Help raise awareness and encourage your coworkers, friends, and neighbors to get involved in the fight against hunger because every donation counts.

Create Friendly Competition 

Depending on where you host your food drive, you can offer different incentives to donors for more enthusiasm! Holding a food drive at a school? Reward the class who collects the most with a pizza party. Holding a food drive at work? Set a goal and promise the staff coffee and donuts if they reach it. Some other ideas for donor prizes are gift cards, coupons, and tickets to an event.

Did you know one box of donations can provide 25 meals!

3. Collect the Right Food

Your donations are valuable but you want to ensure you’re donating the right food. Best practice is to focus on non-perishable items and always double-check for expiration dates and dents. Here is a list of the most requested items from food banks: 

• Peanut or other nut butters
• Chicken broth
• Canned tuna and chicken
• Canned fruit in light syrup
• Canned veggies
• Canned soups, stews, and chili
• Beans, canned or dried
• Boxed mac & cheese
• Pasta, rice, and quinoa
• Pasta sauce
• Baby food and formula
• Shelf-stable milk (rice, almond, soy)
• Cereal, oatmeal, and granola
• Spices (including basic seasonings like salt & pepper)

Quick Tip:

Multifamily food drives use designated bags while our other food drives use boxes. Packing donated food correctly ensures that recipients receive the items in good condition and can easily access what they need. Here are some tips for packing donation boxes and bags: 

• Try to separate types of food such as cereal in one box and cans of vegetables in another. This will help the food bank with sorting once the food is delivered. 
• Cans of food can be heavy, especially in a box. Don't fill up boxes with cans more than halfway to avoid breaking the box.

4. Coordinate Pickup or Delivery

Now that you’re done collecting donations, it’s time to get them to the food banks and on the plates of those who need it most. 

Did you collect more than 25 boxes or bags of food? Then request a food pickup with us!

To get your donations picked up, fill out this form to get your food picked up. Please keep in mind that our partners are volunteers who assist with these pickups around their regularly scheduled jobs, so we try to give them a 30-day window to pick up food donations.

If you’d like to deliver your donations yourself, we can help suggest one in your area. Once the food is delivered the food bank will provide you with a weight receipt that you’ll submit to us in a form.

*Please note: While we are in most locations, we aren’t everywhere (yet). But we’ll do our best to help you out!

Did you collect less than 25 boxes or bags of food? You're still awesome in our book! 

You can bring your food donations to any food bank or pantry in your local community. With a quick search, you’re sure to find somewhere near you that’s in need of donations. The food bank will provide you with a weight receipt that you’ll submit to us.

Note: Multifamily food drives have a lower pickup threshold with a 5-bag minimum.

Send us your weight receipt and pictures of your food drive, and you'll receive a free Move For Hunger T-Shirt!

5. Celebrate & Reflect

Congratulations, you’ve completed your food drive! Thank you for being a part of the fight against hunger and making a real difference in your community. Now, share your impact with photos and updates on social media and tagging @MoveForHunger.

Don’t forget to thank everyone who participated and show your appreciation! Did you love making a difference? Plan your next food drive and make it an annual or recurring event to continue fighting hunger.

Why Host a Food Drive with Move For Hunger?

Since 2009, we’ve organized thousands of food drives and events all across the United States and Canada. We’ve helped a wide range of individuals, schools, community organizations, small businesses, and large companies provide meals for their neighbors in need. We’re here to provide everything you need to plan, promote, and successfully execute your food drive.

“We've worked with Move for Hunger for a couple of our nationwide food drives and the process could not be more seamless and easy. They provided the tools, resources, and support throughout the entire event and consistently communicated whenever we had a question or need. Move for Hunger also does an excellent job of providing the data and the why behind what they do and how we're helping them with the goal of eliminating food insecurity. We look forward to working with Move for Hunger for our future drives!” - Emily Fieser, Natural Retreats

Thank you for being a food drive hero and making a difference with us. Last year, we delivered 15 million meals across the U.S. and Canada, help us deliver the next 15 today! Learn more about getting involved with Move For Hunger or discover other ways to give.