Host a Food Drive

Help End Food Insecurity in Your Community

It’s fun and easy to host a food drive at your workplace, school, neighborhood, place of worship, or in the community. Hosting a food drive is a simple and meaningful way to help those struggling with hunger and food insecurity, and JFS staff are here to support you every step of the way.

Your help is critical. Food drives provide 50% of the food we distribute and gives the greatest variety and choice for our families. We are committed to making it easy for any individual or family who visits our food pantries to access the items they need – meaning that your donations go directly to people in our community, regardless of faith, age, culture, or identity.

Ready to host your food drive? Here’s how to get started

Before you get started, reach out and let us know that you’re interested in hosting a food drive. Let our experienced staff guide you through the steps to host a successful drive and coordinate with you to make this a simple and fun process.

Making your food drive meaningful to you and your supporters will increase participation and success. Get creative and choose what kind of items you want to collect based on what are some of our most needed items or specialty items. The JFS pantries are more than just a place to get nonperishable food items – we also offer fresh fruit and vegetables, pet food, toiletries, personal hygiene items, and kosher food year-round. Our guests can also pick up specialty items like a “birthday package,” which includes everything they need to bake a birthday cake so everyone can celebrate their special day.

Get Creative: For your JFS food drive, consider hosting it with a charitable birthday party or family event with guests bringing food rather than gifts. You could also plan a community service or B’nai Mitzvah Project. Start a community food collection with neighbors or family. Get creative and organize a scavenger hunt at a grocery story with found items being donated to the food pantries.

Set your food drive day and location and gather your team: JFS collects food for our pantries throughout the year, so any time is the perfect time to host your drive. Identify a time and location that works for you to collect your items – such as an afternoon at your workplace or school, or place your drop off bin somewhere simple like your front porch for people to bring items when it’s most convenient for them. Make sure to recruit family, friends, and neighbors to help!

Spread the word: Make sure people know how they can participate in your food drive. Post flyers in popular places in your community, email your network, create a Facebook event, post on social media, and place announcements in local newsletters. Download our toolkit here for materials and resources to help make this process as simple as possible.

Host your drive: Post your signs in easy to see places so people know where to drop off their items and when your food drive ends. Thank your donors and give them a JFS postcard with the link to access their tax receipt. To schedule the delivery or pick up of your donation items, contact Jo Hickey, Director of Pantry Partnerships, at 913-327-8257 or email fooddrive@jfskc.org.

Celebrate! Remember, every item that you collect goes directly to people in need in the Kansas City area. It doesn’t matter if your food drive collects 5 items or 500; you’re making a direct impact on those who come to JFS pantries. Thank your donors and volunteers and know that you are making a difference.

Hunger and food insecurity are prevalent throughout the metropolitan area. You may not know:

20% – 25% of local families with children struggle to put food on the table.
Many families do not qualify for federal assistance, or their benefits are limited, and government assistance often doesn’t cover household and personal hygiene items.
The JFS pantries offer fresh produce, dairy items and even pet food.
Each month, JFS distributes over 29,000 pounds of food to more than 600 families. That includes more than 3,000 rolls of toilet paper a month!

Some of these resources include space for you to add your own information about your drive (examples: dates of participation, drop-off location(s), etc). Image files (PNGs) are editable using your computer’s built-in Photos software. PDF files can be edited using any PDF editor, such as Adobe Acrobat or an online tool like SmallPDF.

For questions or to schedule the delivery or pick up of your donation barrels, contact Jo Hickey, Pantry Director, at 913-327-8257 or email fooddrive@jfskc.org.

Host a Summer “WipeOut” Toilet Paper Drive!

We are distributing more than 2,700 rolls of toilet paper each month and need your help!