Donate Food
Food Drives
All over the city, New Yorkers help feed their hungry neighbors, by organizing food drives in their schools, apartment buildings, businesses and places of worship. Please join them, and help City Harvest feed
New York City's hungry men, women, and children.
Passover Food Drive
A line often recited from the Passover Haggadah says, “Let all who are hungry enter and eat, all who are in need let them come celebrate Passover.” Unfortunately, thousands of Jewish New Yorkers will not have enough food on their tables when their families meet to celebrate Passover. Get involved in our Passover Food Drive and help ensure that Jewish families throughout New York City have enough on their table while celebrating Passover this year.
It's Easy to Run a Passover Food Drive:
• Organize a centralized collection in your school, synagogue or business.
• If you'd like to be considered a public drop-off location, contact Racine Rodriguez.
• Request posters from City Harvest to promote your drive, or download the poster here.
• At the end of your drive, call City Harvest at 917-351-8711 to schedule a pickup (50 pounds and over)
Foods Needed:
• All types of canned and nonperishable sealed, packaged food are acceptable for collection.
• Separate and label non-kosher from kosher food.
• NO PERISHABLE FOODS OR OPENED PACKAGES, PLEASE. This will keep your collection site pest-free and ensure the safety of the food you collect.
How to Plan a Food Drive
- Choose collection sites that are both highly visible and secure.
- Call 917.351.8711 or email us to arrange a pickup date for City Harvest to collect the donations. City Harvest will send one of our food rescue trucks to pick up donations of more than 50 pounds. Please give one or two names as contacts for our drivers, to make sure the pickup runs smoothly.
- Put up City Harvest food drive posters at the collection sites a week or two before the start of the drive--we'll supply the posters, just call 917.351.8711, email us, or download the poster here.
- All types of canned and packaged goods are welcome, but no perishable foods please! This helps keep your collection site insect-free and ensures that all food collected is safe for consumption.
The most needed foods are:
- canned fruit
- canned vegetables
- peanut butter (plastic jars)
- mac and cheese (packaged)
- hot and cold cereal (packaged, family-sized)
The following donations will feed a family of four for a day:
- Breakfast: Box of cereal or oatmeal; dried fruit; powdered milk; 100% fruit juice.
- Lunch: Tuna, peanut butter, or soup; canned vegetables; canned fruit.
- Dinner: Any canned protein (i.e. beef stew, chicken), or meat sauce; macaroni & cheese, pasta or rice; canned fruit or applesauce.
- No glass, please, with the exception of baby food!
- City Harvest collects food exclusively, though we can recommend programs which accept clothes and toys.
Be creative with your food drive and HAVE FUN!
Tips for Planning a Food Drive
Get the word out:
- Establish a goal: If you held a food drive before, try to increase this year's total by 25%, and let people know the goal so they're a part of it!
- Advertise: with posters, announcements, and flyers. City Harvest can supply you with posters. Call 917.351.8711, email us or download a poster here.
- Send an email to employees every day during the week(s) of your drive. Try doing it before they go out to lunch, and provide a list of stores in the neighborhood where they can buy non-perishable foods.
- Set up collection boxes in high-traffic areas.
- Give each participant a bag or box to take home and fill with food.
- Create a paycheck insert, which includes food drive information.
Challenge them! People respond to a challenge and often work harder to reach their goal if there is an element of competition. Here are some suggestions:
- Find another company or another department to challenge. Set the "stakes" high and everyone will want to play to win!
- Offer a prize for the group that brings in the most donations, such as letting the winning department wear casual attire for a day.
- Make each day of one week of the competition a designated food day: Macaroni Monday, Tuna Tuesday, Wheat Cracker Wednesday, Tomato Soup Thursday, Dried Fruit Friday.
- Have various departments responsible for each of the food groups (i.e. one department collects canned meats, another collects pastas and sauces, etc.)
- Ask your corporation to match employees' food donations with a cash donation to City Harvest. For every pound of food employees donate, your corporation can pledge $1 (or more!)
to
City Harvest.
