Notes for 2010 Food Drive
Friday, February 5 & Saturday February 6
Contact store managers in October to get event on their calendar.
District will make initial contact with the pantries (for the Omaha market) that are participating and arrange a central dropping point for all clubs to deliver their collected food on Saturday after the event is completed. Omaha market only
Dates for the drive will be Friday, February 5, and Saturday, February 6th.
Suggest your club only staff each day during the peak shopping times. Our suggestion is Friday, 2 p.m.-7 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
Must have a minimum of 2 Rotarians per store. Rotarians will be passing out flyers inside the main entrance. Grocery carts with flyers attached to the front of the carts will be placed where the customers will have access to the carts after they check out with their groceries.
Two weeks before the event, announce to the club that you will be collecting cash donations from the club at your meeting the week of the food drive. We are asking the public to donate $5 or more, so hopefully your club will demonstrate their generosity with your collection.
Give a copy of the Friday/Saturday schedule to the manager of the store. Get the managers o.k. to use grocery carts to collect the can goods. Also ask the store to allow us to store the carts Friday night and secure the money in their safe Friday night.
Use 22 by 28 signs explaining the event. If approved by the manager, locate the sign after the check-out area, right before the customer exits the store. Grocery cart collecting can goods will be located adjacent to the sign. Try to set up the displays by Tuesday for the drive that will be starting Friday and Saturday. Attached to each sign is a plastic container with a slot for the money donated. At the beginning of the collection on Friday and Saturday, $5 bills are placed in the container to indicate what the containers are for. For the Omaha market, district will provide the signs and try to help locate sign holders. For the Omaha market, district will also print out flyers for Rotarians to distribute to customers as they come into the store. The flyer gives some excellent talking points for the Rotarians to approach the customer. Quantity of flyers for each store is still being discussed.
Need to have strong participation from the club. Each store needs to be staffed with a minimum of two Rotarians per shift. Two- hour shifts is recommended for staffing the event.
Saturday afternoon, each club needs to make arrangements to pick up all groceries and collected money at the stores and deliver to one central site (to be determined). The food will be distributed to the charities from that central site.
Each club is responsible for counting the money collected during the food drive. It is requested that the money be deposited to the club’s bank account and then write a check to Rotary District 5650. The District will then equally divide the money to all participating charities.
For the Omaha market, the district coordinator will work closely with the newspaper, radio, and television to assure great press coverage.
Have a person check the stores before the shifts start to make sure volunteers showed up, signs and carts are in place, adequate flyers are available, and Rotarians are aggressive in their approach.
