Why do a food and supplies drive for the Ronald McDonald House?
Our local Ronald McDonald House provides housing and support for the families of children with serious illnesses who are being treated at Children’s Hospital. The food and supplies that are provided to them during their stay come from donations, so community support is critical. Supplies are currently low–in hosting a donation drive you are materially and significantly filling a need. Besides the intrinsic rewards of supporting such a worthy organization, we found our drive to be a very fun experience, particularly as a collaborative effort with our patients and their families.
Delivering food and supplies to the Ronald McDonald House.
A simple strategy for building community support
Facebook post promoting the food drive.
- Set dates for starting and concluding your food & supplies drive several weeks in advance.
- Market the drive for 3-4 weeks via posted fliers, social media and blog posts, and in any communications sent to clients/patients/customers. Most community newspapers allow organizations to post events such as your drive in their community calendar. Include information about the dates, and what items are needed.
- Place attention-grabbing, decorated collection boxes in a conspicuous location such as your business’ reception area.
- Continue to market during the drive, especially by posting photos of the growing collection of donated items.
- Invite neighboring businesses to take part in the drive–you never know where big donations will come from.
- Celebrate each contribution with the donors!
What We Learned
- Community support of Ronald McDonald House is already strong in spirit. Folks are more than happy to contribute.
- Our patients and their families frequently expressed gratitude for making it easy and convenient of them to take part in the drive.
- Our patients enjoyed seeing the collection pile continuously grow, and enthusiasm built throughout the donation period.
The growing mountain of donated food and supplies!
- It was very fun and rewarding for our staff as well.
- Be prepared–the donation pile just might outgrow the space you’ve provided.
- Most importantly, we learned that the need for donated foot and supplies is great. The families that benefit from Ronald McDonald House rely upon community support, and businesses of every size are in a great position to fill the need.
- Finally, we are already looking forward to our 2017 food and supplies drive!
Delivery day–the truck was full!
Great blog doc! Thanks for being such a great member of your community.
Thank you for the kind words, Shannon!