Self Organizing - Family Food Drive

Overview
The USDA estimates that 49 million Americans - including nearly 17 million children - had trouble getting enough to eat in 2008. Many children go to school in the morning without breakfast and come home to an empty refrigerator. Your family can hold a neighborhood food drive and be part of the solution in your community!

Goals

To feed hungry or food-insecure families in your community
To create awareness about hunger in your community
To develop compassion for the people you are serving

Supporting Organizations

Local food pantry
Local soup kitchen
Local departments of social services

Materials

Paper or recyclable grocery bags
Paper for fliers
Markers
Tape or staples

Instructions

Call a local food pantry or soup kitchen and ask for their wish list of food items. Or, check with your local social services about the needs of families in your community. Each volunteer should collect 8-10 bags of food.
Design a flyer that announces that your family is conducting a neighborhood food drive for the local pantry or soup kitchen” and include the list of items requested. Ask neighbors to “Help Feed the Hungry in Our Community” by leaving their donation in the bag provided by their front door or mailbox on the date that you will collect the bags.
Tape or staple the flier to the grocery bags and deliver to each of your neighbors. The delivery time is a great opportunity to inform your neighbors about the problem of hunger in your local community.
On the designated collection day, pick up the donations and deliver to the food pantry or soup kitchen that your family identified.
After the collection, write a quick thank you note to each of your neighbors and include the amount of food you collected and any interesting quotes from the agency or your family about the collection.

Additional Resources

Hunger Fact Sheet for Kids: www.HandsOnNetwork.org/FamilyVolunteering/ServiceLearning

Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen by Diane DiSalvo-Ryan
Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen tells the story of a young boy at a soup kitchen where his Uncle Willie works. Uncle Willie considers the clients his guests, and not moochers or people looking for a handout.

The Can-Do Thanksgiving by Marion Pomeranc
Dee brings canned peas for the food drive. She puts a yellow sticky with her name and school on her can, hoping to learn where they end up. The church that receives her class contribution sends a thank-you note and asks the children whether they would like to volunteer to serve at the Thanksgiving dinner.

Reflection
After your volunteer project, it is important for families to reflect on their experiences. Choose one of the reflection activities from the list below.

Magic Wand – This activity uses the concept of a magic wand to help children talk about and reflect on their volunteer experience. Have your family sit in a circle. Tell everyone that you have just found a magic wand that allows you to grant wishes, and pose the questions, “If you could grant a wish to one person, who would it be, and what do you think he or she would wish for?” “How do you think what we did today will make someone feel, and how do you think that is similar to granting a wish?”

Family Pictionary – Have each member of the family take turns drawing something about their volunteer experience and how they felt about it. While each person is drawing, have everyone else try to guess what the picture represents. After each picture is drawn, the artist should talk about the picture and why they chose to draw it.