Friends of the
Food Bank Online Store

Arrange A Community Food Drive

• The truck can arrive at the location once the food drive is completed and all the food has been collected– so the food just needs to be loaded onto the truck.  

• The truck can be parked at a pre-determined site for a couple of hours as the food collection is occurring. Then participants can load the food directly onto the truck as they return from collecting:

Food Drive occurs

The Food Bank will let your group know the total weight of food you collected.

Materials Available for Food Drives

• Bags – pre-printed food drive bags have the Food Bank logo and contact information on them. They also include a list of items which can be donated (i.e. our guaranteed items)

• Flyer Template (to photocopy) – this includes the name of the group doing the food drive, as well as the date and time that the food will be picked up. This can then be photocopied directly onto the flyers.

• Name Tags – each person participating in the food drive must wear a name tag when picking up the food. This is very important, as the flyer states that all volunteers collecting food drive donations will wear a Food Bank badge.

• Maps – each community is broken into areas of approximately 100-150 houses. It has been estimated that a pair of people can do this many houses in an hour.

• Guidelines – to be signed by the organizer of the group.

• Sandwich Boards – these are useful to place in the community prior to the food drive so residents know to watch for the bags & flyers. These boards have spaces at the bottom to include specific information about the food drive.

Important Notes

The best length of time to leave between dropping off bags and picking them up seems to be 2 or 3 days. One week is the maximum time that should be left between drop off and pick up.  

It is important to remember to return to EVERY HOUSE that bags & flyers were delivered to see if food was left for collection. Donors are often frustrated if they try to donate food and it is not collected when stated it would be.  

Individuals and groups doing community food drives need to realize that while they are going door-to-door to collect food they are volunteers representing the Food Bank. As such, they must behave in a responsible manner and treat those in the community with respect.  

If your group is not completing the entire community assigned to you, please let the Food Bank know which areas have been completed. This way, if another group wants to complete the area soon after, they can do the remaining sections. Since the map is broken into numbered areas, you can keep track of the numbers you have completed.
 
If you would like to arrange a community food drive, please contact us at:

Phone 253-2059
Email info@calgaryfoodbank.com

For every $1 donated, the Food Bank can distribute $4 of food.
How does this happen?

Donate Online or Learn More

• Juice (1 litre)
• Baby Formula with Iron
• Pasta
• Pasta Sauce
• Canned Tomatos
• Peanut Butter
• Canned Beans in Tomato Sauce
• Cereal
• Canned and Dry Soup
• Baby Food (jars)
• Canned Fish
• Macaroni and Cheese
• Canned Vegetables
• Rice
• Canned Meat
• Canned Fruit
• Processed Cheese Spread (jar)