It's Food Drive Time in Houston!

The upcoming months are often the busiest time for families, companies and community groups to host food and fund drives benefitting the Houston Food Bank and we could not be more grateful for your support! To help your food drive be the best it can be, we've assembled some tips and tricks to get you started on the path to success.

Food drives are a fantastic way to collect much-needed items for our less fortunate neighbors. In fact, we've put together a food drive kit with lists of our most needed items, customizable printables and much more. As you consider your food drive, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Our neighbors need healthy food. Please be mindful of the need for low sodium vegetables, fruits in light syrup, lean canned meats and other nutritious items when hosting your drive.
• Kids need food, too. Consider hosting a food drive specifically for the most needed items for our Backpack Buddy program. Distribution of food sacks to kids increases in holiday months when they'll be on vacation from school.
• Please remember your food has to be sorted and transported - we prohibit certain items, including homemade items, baby food, expired food and anything in glass containers.
• Please register your food drive, especially if you'd like to pick up supplies like boxes or bins to collect the food.
• It is expensive to run our trucks. For that reason, we are unable to pick up donations for all but the largest community food drives. If you will be unable to drop off your food collection, please consider a virtual food drive, instead. Contact Yolanda Alexander, Community Engagement Manager, for more details

If you decide to host a traditional food drive, thank you! Here are some creative suggestions to help you kick off your food drive:

• Build a sculpture out of cans
• Hold a raffle with the price of a ticket being a canned food item
• Host a movie, talent show or talent show with canned food being the price of admission
• Theme days where everyone bring in a variety of the same canned good (Tuna Thursday, Meaty Monday, Veggie Day, etc.)
• Compete with teams in a bigger organization (i.e. each floor of the office competes)

No matter what you do to host a food drive- just make sure you know you are making a difference in the fight against hunger.  For more information about our most needed items, picking up food drive supplies or where to find our logos, please visit our website.