Organize a
Food Drive
Food drives bring in more than hundreds of thousands of pounds of food a year to the Burlington Food Bank. Together, dozens of communities organize events, gather food, and deliver it to us to distribute among our clients. It’s incredible efforts from members of our community that help us to feed our neighbours.
Register Your Event
Food and fund drives provide the Burlington Food Bank with the necessary resources to sustain our programs and ensure that a supply of emergency food is available to those who may need it.
If you would like to organize a Food Drive on behalf of the Burlington Food Bank, we encourage you to start by registering your event. This helps us to coordinate the physical resources, any food pick-ups needed, and the social media coverage to help you promote your event.
Event Tool Kit
We encourage you to run your own event in support of the Burlington Food Bank, and are happy to provide you with materials to help. Note: we would love to see how you use our logo and other images before you distribute them, so please send any collateral you have created to k.kay@burlingtonfoodbank.ca.
Most Needed Items
The Burlington Food Bank provides fresh and non-perishable food, as well as supplies such as diapers, toiletries, and cleaning supplies to its own clients and to over 20 emergency food programs across the city. This is our current list of most needed items:
Cereal (Hot and Cold)
Large Soup
Juice (Boxes and 1 Litres)
Granola Bars (Peanut Free)
Peanut Butter
Crackers
Canned Fruit
Canned Tomatoes
Canned Vegetables
Canned Meat
Legumes
Pasta Sauce
Personal Hygiene products
How to Run a Successful Community Event
If you’re running a food drive as your event, or as part of your event, there are sections on the Community Event Registration Form where you can let us know your goals, whether you need food collection bins, specially marked boxes or a food pick-up. We can also provide a spokesperson for large corporate events.
1. Decide on a place and time
2. Set goals for your event
- How much are you aiming to collect? Set a goal in pounds, or aim to fill a lobby, lunchroom, office, or corporate vehicle.
- Generating 100% participation is a great goal. Your event can be a team-building activity!
- We recommend sorting food in designated boxes that we provide. This way your donors can see what items are needed most.
- We can only pick up collections greater than 300 pounds (about 30 grocery bags) but we always appreciate collections being dropped off at our warehouse or a local fire station.
3. Promote your community event
- Encourage people to donate our Most Needed Food Items and check expiry dates.
- Tell people about your food drive including your friends, co-workers, neighbours and classmates.
- For corporate events, find out if your company will match food/monetary donations.
- Use facts about the Burlington Food Bank to promote your drive by visiting our ‘Learn’ page.
- Advertise your drive on Instagram, Facebook, or other social media sites. Be sure to tag us in your posts @burlfoodbank.
- Let us know about your event so can post about it on our website and social media.
- Send a description of your event (including who, what, where, when, contact information and a link to your website, if applicable), at least two weeks before the event. We’ll post it on our website and social media.
- Send us photos or videos from a previous event.
- Your description and formatting may be edited for it to fit our requirements.
- Track your success, send out emails and post updates to keep everyone excited and involved.Drop off your food and fund raising donations at:
4. Drop off your donations
Please bring your donations to:
1254 Plains Rd East, Unit 1A
Burlington, ON L7S 1W6
Or, if you requested a specific pick-up date on your registration form, you can expect the truck that day. If there are conflicts, we can make other arrangements. Please note that financial donations CANNOT be dropped at fire halls. Bring them to our Plains Road location.
5. Follow up with your participants and donors
- Let everyone know about your success, either in an email, poster or announcement.
- After we receive your donation, a thank you letter or certificate will be sent to the event organizer. We encourage you to duplicate this letter to send it to your donors.
- Contact the Burlington Post and Burlington Today and encourage them to cover the success of your event.
- The more innovative and creative your event, the more the media will want to cover it.
Other Events
Need some inspiration? Browse our News & Events page for some other fundraising events happening in our community.
Street Eats Market Food Festival
Street Eats Market Food Festival
Happening this weekend at LaSalle Park, June 21 (6pm-10pm), June 22 (12pm-10pm) and June 23 (12pm-8pm)!
Free admission and free shuttle buses. Huge kids zone too.
Funds raised to support Burlington Food Bank and Joseph Brant Hospital.
Event at LaSalle Park,
Faith Church 40th Anniversary Celebration
Sunday June 23, 3:00-5:00pm
Faith Church 40th Anniversary Celebration
Community event and BBQ with games, music and more!
Event at 2265 Mountainside Dr, Burlington, ON
Lakeside Family Dental 60th Anniversary Celebration
Sunday July 14, 11:00am – 2:00pm
Lakeside Family Dental 60th Anniversary Celebration
Family friendly fun, food and music
Event at 21-5353 Lakeshore Road, Burlington
Touch a Truck Event – LO
Saturday July 20, 9:00am – 12:00pm
Touch a Truck Event brought to you by Landscape Ontario
Come out to see and touch all kinds of cool heavy-duty trucks and equipment! All free!
Food drive and donations accepted for the Burlington Food Bank
Event at St Paul-the-Apostle
Family Fun Day & Food Drive
Saturday July 27, 11:00am – 3:00pm
JKM Towing Family Fun & Food Drive
Come out for loads of family fun, trucks, music, face painting and more
Food drive for the Burlington Food Bank
Event at the Burlington Centre (Guelph Line and Fairview corner)
Halton Freedom Celebration Festival
Saturday August 3, 1:00pm – 11:00pm
2024 Halton Freedom Celebration Festival
Music, food and tons of fun!
Food drive and donations for the Burlington Food Bank
Event at Spencer Smith Park, Burlington
