Virtual & Canned Food Drives

Food drives organized by community groups, schools, and local businesses help fill The Food Bank’s warehouse and enable us to dedicate more resources towards our mission.

Virtual Food Drives

Click the picture to the left to donate to our General Virtual Food Drive, or read on to find out how you can start one of your own!

Many people are interested in conducting canned food drives because of the hands-on aspect of physically bringing non-perishable food items to The Food Bank.  While we greatly appreciate these types of donations, there are other ways to donate that have more of an impact. Every canned food drive costs The Food Bank in staff time to sort and redistribute the food that is donated. An easy solution to this is to conduct a virtual food drive.

Virtual food drives are online fund-raising campaigns that still have the exciting hands-on feel of a canned food drive. With the point and click of a mouse,you can choose which food products you which to donate and how many. Another benefit is that when you make a large donation, you no longer have to worry about carrying heavy boxes or bags of food to The Food Bank. Instead, your donation is delivered to The Food Bank instantaneously.

With virtual food drives, your donation goes a long way. For every $1 you donate through the virtual food drive towards food purchases and distribution, we are able to distribute $13 worth of food – that’s the equivalent of about 10 meals! Through a canned food drive, you will probably be able to donate about three cans of food for every $1 you spend. A virtual food drive allows you to stretch your dollar much further towards helping hungry families.

Our virtual food drive tool is fully customizable for your company, group, or school, so you can have the same feeling of team effort as you would with a canned food drive.

Start a virtual food drive now!

Canned Food Drives

If a virtual food drive isn’t right for you or your group, a canned food drive is still a wonderful way to get involved and donate.

Below is our current list of most-needed food items.  It’s a great idea to try to collect items that can be combined to make a healthy meal, such as:

• Peanut butter and jelly
• Rice and canned or dry beans
• Spaghetti and canned spaghetti sauce
• Canned or boxed pasta/rice meals and canned vegetables
• Canned or instant soups/stews and rice
• Dry oatmeal and canned fruit

Please use our online form to tell us about your canned food drive!

Tips for any food drive

Here are some tips for making your virtual or canned food drive successful:

• Tell us about your event. We can support you with materials and flyers about The Food Bank, publicity, and fact sheets to generate participation in your event.
• Create a theme. Run a food drive in connection with a special event or holiday celebration.
• Set a date for well in advance. For food drives, a two-week food duration for the drive is usually about right. Shorter food drives need to be very well publicized to be effective.
• Publicize! Posters, flyers, e-mails, newsletter articles, payroll inserts, and public service announcements are all effective ways to let people know about your efforts to support The Food Bank. It helps to provide people with a contact person within the organization who can answer questions. The Food Bank can help you publicize by posting your event on our website and e-newsletter.
• Educate others about why this is important. The Food Bank can send a speaker to your organization to talk about the issue of hunger and how your efforts will help make a difference.  Your group can also come to The Food Bank to tour our facility and participate in our hunger education activities.
• For canned food drives, please keep collection containers to a size that can be lifted. Remember that even a small box will become quite heavy when filled.  Please ask people to avoid donating glass containers if possible.
• Arrange a time to tour The Food Bank after your drive is complete. We’d love to show you around and give you a first-hand look at how your donation will be used.

Getting your food to The Food Bank

Methods for food delivery

Due to a large number of requests for food drive pick-up, The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts has put together a list of helpful criteria for planning your food delivery:

1)      Bring your Donations to The Food Bank:

• The Food Drive is located at 97 N. Hatfield Rd., Hatfield Ma. 01038 (exit 22 off 91N, exit 23 off 91S). Click here for directions.
• Food may be delivered and weighed Monday through Friday, between 9am and 3pm.
• Upon arrival, back  up your vehicle to the garage doors in the parking lot and check in with someone through the main entrance.

2)      Drop Off your Donations at a Food Bank Member Agency:

• If you prefer to bring your donations to a location closer to you, please contact us. We can suggest a pantry or meal site in your general area that would be happy to accept your donations.

3)      Arrange Bins for over 1,000 pounds:

• If you anticipate that your food drive will raise a large quantity of food that cannot be easily delivered by your vehicle, please call us to discuss bin delivery and Food Bank pick up.

Bins are large plastic containers approximately 4′ x 3′ wide ( 48” x 40” x 32”h)

Each bin holds approximately 600 pounds.

The Food Bank must deliver the bin ahead of time and pick-up following your event. Please provide a contact name and number for someone who will be present for the bin delivery and pick-up.

The Food Bank can deliver bins within a 30 mile radius of Hatfield.

All bin drop offs and pick ups are subject to the Food Banks availability and regular food delivery schedules.

There must be legal truck parking at your location.

Bins must be picked up using a forklift, and therefore kept outside a building or if inside, you must have a solid surface upon which to place the bin, and we must be able to use heavy machinery in the area.

For more information, please call The Food Bank at 413-247-9738 or email our Development & Marketing Department.