Get pre-commitments, supplies & a few volunteers before it’s too late!

It might sound backwards, but after you personally have decided to help in a lager than normal way, start getting commitments right away—even before all of volunteers are firmed up. Why? Because people will be more generous with their time, supplies and so on, the closer the date of your request is to the date of unfortunate crisis. So get out there and start asking!

Volunteers: 1 to 2 volunteers is all you’ll need for planning the drive out. You can easily break down these items between the three of you but as the leader, you need to be sure that the plan stays on coarse. Get the remaining volunteers once collection dates are decided on and publicity is in full swing.

Supplies: You’ll probably need Markers, Posters, Flyers, a Computer and plenty of strapping tape. These items are easy to obtain. We had good contributions from the local, smaller hardware stores. Most of the items need to be donated.

Boxes: Go to your local box manufacture and get damaged or unused boxes. We used the Weyerhaeuser Corp and learned they have locations in Aurora, Bedford Pk., Montgomery, Rockford and Chicago, IL. They generously donated 420 collapsed boxes for our drive. We used 270 boxes that held about 4,800 items weighing 5,400 lbs. You can also canvas the local grocery stores. Remember to either save the boxes for the next drive or donate them to your local food pantry.

Plastic Shopping Bags: These aren’t hard to get because even a small box of them contains 1,000 bags. Go to service desk at the local grocery stores and ask to speak to the manager. Tell the manager that you’re planning a door-to-door drive. Your team will place the bags and flyers  right on the door knobs requesting neighbors to fill them up with items needed for the drive. Remember to either save the extra bags for the next drive or donate them to the food pantry.

Retail Collection Points and Dates: While at the grocery store and once you have the bags, ask the shift manager how to reserve dates for conducting a food drive at the store’s entrances. Explain that this drive is an extension of the door-to-door portion of the drive and that you’d like your small group of volunteers to pass out flyers on a couple 8 am to noon slots on one or two weekends. Show the manager an example of the Retail-Flyers and explain that your team will be courteous. Get these dates right away as a part of the pre-commitment part of the plan.

Storage--Transportation: After you’ve located a  local food pantry and depending on the size of your drive, the food pantry might agree with picking up all of your collected goods. Space Required: keep in mind that our family’s 2-car garage, (floor to ceiling), held 4,800 items, weighing 5,400 lbs in 270 boxes.  You must allow for enough space because if you collect the goods and then have no where to box / sort / store them temporarily you’re in quite a pickle, so make space to keep the goods whether it’s a garage or a storage unit.  Transportation needed: For this we needed 3 commercial vans to truck the goods to the pantry. Hopefully these pictures and information will help with planning storage space, transportation and number of boxes.  (If the warehouse does not supply you with a truck / van, no worries, you’ll just need to make a few trips to them with the goods in your own car, but you can obviously minimize the trips if you have a larger vehicle. 

Please use the back arrow of your browser.  This page last reviewed and/or updated 04/25/2007 09:44 PM