Organizing a food drive can be simple and fun. Pick out a time frame to collect donations and pick a way to motivate your community to join you. Here are some ideas on how to start one.

• Have your community drop off donations at your home.
• Partner with your school to be a drop-off point for donations.
  You can borrow our food drive barrels to make the collection easier. 
• Instead of asking for birthday presents, ask for donations for your food drive. 
• Organize a food drive with your office. 
• Ask a local grocery store to host our food drive barrels. 
• Ask your place of worship to collect items during the holiday season. 

There are many more creative ways to host a food drive. 

Help your community understand what types of items to donate. Here is the list of what our neighbors commonly request:

• Rice
• Cooking oil
• Peanut butter
• Jelly
• Soy sauce
• Easy to cook pre-made meals
• Canned meats
• Stews
• Soups
• Diapers
  Personal hygiene products

When thinking about what to donate, please keep in mind if you wouldn’t give it to a friend, we shouldn’t give it to our neighbors. 

Lastly, pick a day you can bring the donations to The Friendship Center. 

Here is when we are open to accept donations:
Monday: 2 – 4 p.m.
Tuesday: 3 – 7 p.m.
Wednesday: 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Thursday: 2 – 7 p.m.
Friday: 2 – 6 p.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.

If you have any questions before you get started, please call us at 773.907.6388 or email info@friendshipcenterchicago.org. We cannot accept food that is left outside.

Thanks for fighting hunger by feeding your neighbors.

Download our food drive toolkit to save this information for later.