
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.