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Food Drive: Frequently Asked Questions

 

QUESTIONS:
Enrollment and Supplies

  1. How do I register for a Food and Fund Drive?
  2. What does the Food Bank provide for my drive?
  3. What foods are needed most?
  4. How do I get my materials?
  5. How do I schedule a barrel delivery and/or pickup?
  6. What are the barrel delivery and pickup hours?
  7. Can I drop food off at the Food Bank?
  8. Where do my donations go?

Online Tool

  1. What is a Virtual Food Drive?
  2. How does the Virtual Drive work?
  3. What is the point structure?

Financial Donations

  1. How do I make a financial donation?
  2. How do I find out how much my organization turned in (pounds and financial donations)?
  3. How do I get my tax receipt?
  4. How do I handle my company's matching gifts?

 

ANSWERS:
Enrollment & Supplies

1. How do I register for a Food and Fund Drive?
It’s easy! Just click here. Fill out your group or organization’s information. If you would like to have a barrel delivered, you can request delivery dates there. Please keep in mind that our resources are limited and we may not be able to accommodate all delivery requests. Once you sign up, you will receive an email with the URL for your personalized web page that you can distribute and start your drive! You will also receive a separate email confirmation of your barrel delivery.

2. What does the Food Bank provide for my drive?
The Food Bank can provide all of the basic materials needed for a drive including food barrels, posters and list of most needed food items. Register today!

3. What foods are needed most?
Our most needed items are:

Rice & pasta
Canned fruit
Tuna
Canned Meat
Soups, Stews and Chili
Peanut Butter
Cereal

Some general guidelines:

  • Only donate items that you would eat.
  • Check that items are still within their “Use before” date.
  • Avoid glass items, which can break.  If you do collect glass items, try to wrap them separately.
  • We can only accept unopened items.  We can accept opened packages if the internal packaging is still intact.

4. How do I get my materials?
Food Barrels are requested via the registration form. Posters and list of most needed food items can be downloaded here.  

5. How do I schedule a barrel delivery and/or pickup?
Delivery and pickup dates are requested via the online registration form. The Food Bank schedulins barrel deliveries, pick ups and swaps by zip code.  We encourage you to schedule on your day listed here.

6. What are the barrel delivery and pickup hours?
Monday through Friday, 9AM to 3PM. We cannot schedule specific delivery times.

7. Can I drop food off at the Food Bank?
Yes! We are happy to accept drop-off donations.  Please bring food donations to our warehouse at 75 Digital Dr. The Marin Food Bank is open Monday through Friday, 8 AM - 3 PM.

8.  Where do my donations go?
Through purchasing directly from farms and manufactures and in bulk we are able to purchase $6 of food for every $1 donated. Only three cents on every dollar donated goes to administrative costs. The rest goes directly back into our community to provide food to those who need it.

Food donations get sorted by our volunteers and put on the shelves in our warehouse. Representatives from some of the 450 community organizations we supply food for, select the food and use it to prepare meals for those in need or to supplement the larger deliveries we give them. All food donated goes directly into the community you donated it in.

Online Tool

1. What is a Virtual Food Drive?
The Virtual Food Drive is an online donation page that provides a customized giving webpage you can distribute to colleagues, school, congregation or friends, and together help alleviate hunger.

2. How does the Virtual Food Drive work?
Simply visit this page and click on “register my drive”. Enter your business, school, congregation or team’s information, goals, upload your logo or an image of your choice, place a barrel order and create a customized team greeting. Once the online registration form is complete, your application will be submitted for approval to Food Bank staff. You will receive an e-mail with login instructions to the coordinator’s page where you can access your team’s personalized web page. Through your coordinator login page you can make blog postings, and order additional barrels.

3. What is the point structure?
We created a point structure so that you can easily collect both food and monetary donations and track them on the same meter. For every dollar donated to your team’s page you get one point, for every five pounds of food you receive one point. 

Team members who donate by clicking on the “donate now” button on your team page will have their donations reflected in the point total within 5 minutes. Donations by check can be made. Please allow for more time for them to be manually uploaded into your team’s total.

Please make checks payable to Marin Food Bank and send them here:

Attention: Food and Fund Drives
Marin Food Bank
75 Digital Dr
Novato, CA 94949

Financial Donations & Awards

1. Can I donate by cash/check?
You bet! Please send all cash/check donations via mail/messenger to the address below. To assure that all donations are counted towards your team goal, please include your company or team name.

Attention: Food and Fund Drives
Marin Food Bank
75 Digital Dr
Novato, CA 94949

2. How do I find out how much my organization turned in (pounds and financial donations)?
The best way to find out how well your drive is doing is by viewing your personalized team page. All donations made through clicking the “donate now” button on your team page are reflected on your meter within 5 minutes. Cash/check donations may take 1-2 weeks to process. Food totals are updated every week.

3. How do I get my tax donation receipt?
Online donations will receive an automated receipt via email. And monetary donations sent into the Food Bank of $5 or more will receive a receipt by mail.

4. How do I handle my company's matching gifts?
Many corporations have a matching gift program. Please consult your Human Resources department to see if your company matches charitable contributions. When making a contribution that your company will match, be sure to enclose the paperwork required by your company with your gift.