Food Banks See A Decrease In Donations - What can we do?

[queenofthehivemomof5]

Hey guys HCW member lt34102 sent me this link to a very sad article about how donations to the Salvation Army (and I am sure other food banks) have decreased due to the high numbers of unemployed and under employed folks out there right now.

Please take a moment to read this article

One of the best side effects of couponing for many of us is the ability to purchase food items at a deep discount and have extras to donate to our local food banks and pantries. It is a sad fact that many people these days are going hungry. They say that some 40 million Americans are on Food Stamps. I implore you to take a moment to go through your stockpiles and put together a box or two of items that you can donate. Or to see what staple type food items that you can get for free or cheap and drive them on down to your local food banks.

Lets make 2011 a year of giving to help others in our communities. I know that not everyone wants to brag about their donations but if you want to share what items you have donated this year to local charites, food banks or other programs lets use this thread in 2011 to post about what we have donated and where. If you want to list local foods banks or charities that you have donated to (links to their websites, addresses, phone numbers, lists of items that they can use are all OK to post as well)

If you wish to share photos of items that you have donated or take a video of you dropping off your donations you are welcome to do that as well. Not as a brag but as inspiration to others to do the same!

I am so amazed at the generosity and kindness of the Hotcouponworld community and I know that the site helps many people out saving money. I have heard from so many wonderful members that without the site they would be going hungry. And while that delights me as a site owner knowing that it is helping them it also pains me to think that there are folks out there going without food basics.

[RockyGap]

So sad.If gas prices rise to $4.00 or $5.00 a gallon as they are predicting it will become worse.I give regulary to the food bank in my area(around 2 miles from my house) but I am at a total loss when it comes to donating shampoo,diabetic meters,soap, school supplies,etc - they just keep piling up in my basement.
Hopefully this will be the year I find a place for them.

[queenofthehivemomof5]

So sad.If gas prices rise to $4.00 or $5.00 a gallon as they are predicting it will become worse.I give regulary to the food bank in my area(around 2 miles from my house) but I am at a total loss when it comes to donating shampoo,diabetic meters,soap, school supplies,etc - they just keep piling up in my basement.
Hopefully this will be the year I find a place for them.

For health & beauty products try looking for homeless shelters, abuse shelters, or even ask at your local food banks for other donation locations that may be able to use your donations. I donate most of that type of stockpile stuff to a local women's abuse shelter. Anything that is for the guys (deodorant/body-wash/razors) I donate to our local Boys & Girls Club (I donate girl stuff here too) as there are a lot of teens that could use the hygiene stuff because their families cannot afford it.

School supplies, why not call your local school and see if they can use them (I am sure they can!!) teachers often have to fund many of their supplies out of their own pockets and in many areas there is not a good budget for them (not in my area...but that is another can of worms..) if you would rather the school supply donations not go to the teachers to just use willy nilly I am sure they can make sure that they go to children who are truly in need.

I just read an article in our local paper about a new program someone in town has started up that sends prefilled backpacks home with school children so that they have food to last over the weekend. It appears that it is mostly snack type foods (Goldfish crackers, granola bars, and that sort of thing) and I was thinking that those are things I get frequently for free or cheap so I am calling them today to see what exactly is on their donation list and see what I can come up with. I am hoping that the donations do not have to be peanut free because I have a ton of granola bars that I stockpiled for my kids lunches this summer only to find out our school is a nut free school so my kids are not eating them as fast as I would have liked. So maybe this program could use some.

[chitownmelli]

We like to drop an item or two off at the bins at the grocery store each week - I know it isn't a lot, it's just what we can do right now, and we hope that it helps someone. Kristy and I do that cool coupon train every year where the riders get points for donating food, etc -- we might need to make this something we do more than once a year :) Thanks for the reminder Heidi!

[lmcconne]

We could contact our local food banks to get a list of suggested donation items. And because my bank does, ask if they accept expired items. Mine takes things even two or three years out. But check first.

[tinkinpink84]

I think everywhere is in need of donations including animal shelters! Maybe that once a year train could go to once a month! Or something like once a month we do a pantry clean out and get together a box to take to the food bank once a month of stuff we have gotten or got in excess and cant use. most people seem to just toss it in the trash because it was free/cheap rather then take the extra step to donate the items instead. Im guilty of that last year with the mayo i got! But maybe having a thread or forum dedicated to donations unless we already got that. To exchange ideas to up the donations and post the best deals for the food banks or womans shelters and maybe people can add the places to there areas that accept donations and the types they accept. So people can check their area out to see what places need donations and what types so they can stock up on those deals for donation purposes. Just to get people aware of the shelters and places in their areas and what they are in desperate need of. Give people a better idea of what they can gather up for donations. Or stuff they can incorporate into their store deals for donations.

[wookin]

I may be able to assist in what food pantries always need. I volunteer at 2 and have for years. These are items always needed:

Tuna
Peanut Butter
Jelly
Rice
Pasta
Pasta Sauce
any potted meat
canned fruit
canned beans
meals in a can like beef stew, Spaghetti-o's, Beef-a-Roni, Chili
Hamburger/Tuna/Chicken Helper
Boxed Potatoes
Cereal, hot and cold
Soup
canned vegetables

Most of this stuff we get free or cheap anyway. If you could pick up a few things extra each week, you'd be surprised how fast it adds up and will be greatly appreciated at any food pantry.

Pantries can also use HBA and paper products. These things are not covered by food stamps. The pantries that I volunteer at cannot use OTC meds so ask your pantry before gathering a bunch of this type stuff. Diapers and wipes are always welcome as well.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. HTH.

[KLittle]

I organize the Food Drives for my church and we actually use the "Mobile Food Drive" offered through the Freestore Foodbank. It's a truck that will go to most locations and for between $500-$1,500, depending on how many families you are feeding, you can get enough food to feed 100-200 families. Each family gets about 50lb of food. It's really a sweet deal and they offer all kinds of food products including meat items.

What we've started doing is supplementing our food drive with Health and Beauty care items, paper products and similar type items that their gov't food cards can't purchase. A few of us are gathering coupons and trying to get the really great deals in order to do this. We actually just started this past week. If anyone has some tips on how to get our hands on extra newspaper circulars that would be great. I did ask at my local Kroger today and they said in order for them to get credit for returning the newspapers the circulars have to be included.

[kval07]

Great idea, Heidi. Funny this topic came up. I start volunteering at the Mid Michigan Food Bank on Wednesdays during their food distributions on Feb 2nd. I was on their site the other day looking to see where to drop off donations and happened to see they need an Excel guru for tracking distributions. I sent an email and now I have a regular volunteering gig.

One thing I want to point out is that monetary donations will go a lot further than product donations:

"Consider this," Ross Fraser of Feeding America wrote in an e-mail. "If you buy a can of tuna fish and donate it to a food bank, it will cost you a dollar and some change." However, a $1 donation to Feeding America provides "about 20 pounds of food and grocery products to someone at risk of hunger."
Other food banks rate their return on your dollar at anywhere from five to 15 pounds of food. They do it by buying in bulk, using volunteer labor and working with food brokers who notify them of deep discounts.

Food bank donations: Top 10 needs - MSN Money

I know a lot of us here are power shoppers, but no one here can provide the food per dollar that a food bank can, especially when they have people working at the corporate level to get huge amounts of foods at a discount.

Feeding America: Hunger-Relief Charity | FeedingAmerica.org has a food bank locator. You can also take a look at the Hunger Action Center to see how you can help: Feeding America.

[Devstar]

I agree with kval. I work for a community action agency and we work closely with our area food bank. They can get stuff a lot cheaper and in huge amounts to distribute to member agencies for pennies a pound. Here is an example of what a member agency is charged by the food bank for product (this is per pound).
ADVANTAGE MEDIUM TOOTHBRUSH, 12 PACKAGES WITH 6 PER PACKAGE $0.76
ASSORTED PROCTOR & GAMBLE BY THE POUND, $0.19
CONDITIONER, DISNEY HANNAH MONTANA HERBAL ESSENCES DRAMA CLEAN, 12-12 OZ BOTTLES $2.09
CREST SOFT TOOTHBRUSHES, 36 PACKAGES WITH 5 PER PACKAGE $2.47
ORAL B CROSSACTION VITALIZER TOOTHBRUSHES, 27 PACKAGES WITH 6 PER PACKAGE $2.09
ORAL B PETER PAN TOOTHBRUSHES, 24 TOOTHBRUSHES PER CASE $0.19
ORAL B TOOTHBRUSHES DISPLAY UNIT, 12-2 COUNT PACKAGES $0.57 PANTENE PRO V RED EXPRESSION CONDITIONER, 36-50ML TUBES $0.95
SHIMMERY NIGHTS SHIMMER GEL SPRAY, 12-0.5 OZ PLASTIC BOTTLES $0.95
DISH SOAP LIQUID LEMON FRESH ULTRA, 12-19 OZ PLASTIC BOTTLES $12.49
DISINFECTANT ULTRA BLEACH 6-96 OZ PLASTIC BOTTLES $7.98
NAPKINS BY THE POUND (150 COUNT PACKAGES) $0.19
NO TOUCH ANTIBACTERIAL HAND SOAP DISPENSER WITH 2 SOAP REFILLS, 1 KIT PER CASE $0.38
PAPER PLATES, 10 1/4" 75 COUNT PACKAGE $0.76
ASSORTED GEN. MILLS PRODUCT $0.19
ASSORTED QUAKER PRODUCTS PER POUND $0.19
CAP'N CRUNCH CEREAL, 2-20 OZ BAGS $0.57
CINNABON CEREAL, MULTI GRAIN CRUNCHY CINNAMON, 2-16 OZ BAGS PER BOX $0.38
COCOA KRISPIES CEREAL, 12-11.3 OZ BOXES $2.28
COCOA PUFFS CEREAL, 14-16.5 OZ BOXES $3.80
SPECIAL K COMBO PACK, RED BERRIES 1-12 OZ BOX, FRUIT & YOGURT 1-12.8 OZ BOX AND BLUEBERRY 1-11.4 OZ BOX $0.57
ASSORTED VEGETABLES IN #10 CANS BY THE POUND $0.19