While some food banks have downplayed traditional food drives in recent years, others have found that a combination of engagement, community, and collaboration has made their traditional food drives incredibly successful.
Gleaners Community Food Bank, which serves five counties in southeast Michigan, hosts a trio of food drives each summer. According to Bob Irland, Community Giving Manager at Gleaners, summer food drives can help raise awareness of food insecurity during a time when donations decrease and demand ticks up because free or reduced school meals aren’t as readily available.
One of those food drives is a summer cereal drive hosted in partnership with the Children’s Hospital of Michigan. Asking for donations of cereal is a “no-brainer” during the summer months, Irland said. “It’s shelf-stable, kids actually like it, and we’ve got a great buy-in from the community on this,” he said.
This year, Gleaners has raised more than 900,000 servings of cereal, which is the metric it uses to track donations, between late May and early June. In the 14 years that Gleaners has held the cereal drive, it has raised more than 13.5 million servings. Irland attributes that to strong community partners who hold internal competitions to see who can raise the most cereal.
“We work with such a fantastic group of nurses at the Children’s Hospital who really activate their networks, whether it’s local businesses, schools, or places of worship,” Irland said. Media partners are also “incredibly instrumental” in raising awareness, Irland said.
At Arkansas Food Bank, media partnerships and competition also play big roles. More accurately, the Arkansas Food Bank’s media partner is more of a media champion.
Each year, the Arkansas Food Bank hosts a significant summer cereal drive that includes a kickoff at town hall, various prizes for teams that raise the most food, and significant news media coverage. Now in its 24th year, the summer cereal drive started when the chief meteorologist for a local TV news station approached the food bank because he saw a need in the community during the summer months.
The cereal drive, which is the food bank’s largest food drive by far, raised about $220,000 in monetary donations and 36,000 physical boxes of cereal this summer. According to Claire Tiffin, Community Development Coordinator, each dollar donated converts to a single box of cereal because of the food bank’s purchasing power and its ability to package bulk cereal.
Meteorologist Tom Brannon’s involvement plays a significant role in why the food drive is so successful and how it got so big, Tiffin said. “He is very well-loved in the community. He’s such a great guy, and he’s so community-centered,” she said. “We have people that come out of the woodworks to meet Tom Brannon while we’re out at events.”
The good-natured but competitive aspect of the food drive is also a significant factor in the success of the cereal food drive. Organizations are divided into different divisions based on size, and the winners are honored at a “breakfast of champions” event. While the food bank doesn’t track total participants, it had 156 teams of varying sizes involved this year.
“People get really into it. Everyone knows who they’re competing against, and they like to keep tabs on how the other teams are doing throughout the summer,” Tiffin said. “Sometimes we have organizations where it’s their only form of giving to the food bank, and they spend all year raising funds and raising cereal. Sometimes, it’s just one other thing on top of what they’re already doing for the food bank.”
The summer cereal drive is a great way to involve the community, said Sarah Riffle, Chief Development Officer at Arkansas Food Bank. “We take the summer cereal drive on the road, including Tom, and we’re going into different communities across our service area, collecting cereal, and doing these live broadcasts,” she said. “And all of the cereal collected that day goes to pantries in that community.” – Mike Peterson
Mike Peterson is a San Diego-based writer, editor, and strategist who is passionate about finding and telling stories that matter.
CAPTION, TOP: Local meteorologist Tom Brannon (center, right) with Arkansas Food Bank employees in the “prizewinner’s circle” at a breakfast honoring food drive contestants.
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