Run a Food Drive for the ASRC Foodbank
When you run a food drive for the ASRC Foodbank, you’ll make a difference to people seeking asylum by providing one of the most basic human rights, food.
Why Run a Food Drive?
Food is one of the most immediate and tangible ways to give someone a hand up. When you donate food, you can:
- Unite your staff, students, community group or neighbours around a common cause. Stand together with refugees!
- Be confident your donation goes directly to vulnerable people. More than 80% of the people we support have no income. The ASRC Foodbank is their only pathway to food security and person hygiene items.
- Raise awareness about hunger in the community and encourage others to take action
- Make a big impact with minimal expense.
Need help getting started?
How to run a food drive
Learn how to run your own food drive, from how to choose your drop-off location to how to deliver your donations to the ASRC
Foods we need
.Find out what are the top 10 most needed items to make a difference to people seeking asylum
Tips and Resources
Access a number of items and ideas to help you promote your Food Drive
How to Run a Food Drive
When?
Decide on a start and finish date. The shorter the time span for your food drive, the easier it will be to keep people engaged.
Where?
Choose a drop-off location for the food. If your food drive is at a school, in an office or community centre, choose a drop-off location that is easy to access and highly visible, and provide a large container labelled with the food list.
If you are holding a drive within your local neighbourhood, a protected front porch in a dog-free front yard can be used as a contactless ‘any time’ donation point.
Drop-off?
Once your food drive is finished, please contact us to deliver the food to us. We have limited transport resources, and are generally unable to collect.
What Food Should We Collect?
We rely heavily on donations to be able to provide food and essential items for our clients.
We do please ask that you ONLY bring foods from the list below.
Please check that the food you donate is within the expiry date. To respect the dignity of our members, and also to comply with Victorian health regulations, we cannot accept items that are past their use-by or best-before date or have damaged or open packaging.
Essential food items are our priority, and sticking to the list ensures that our community’s needs are met, and we make the most out of your donation. We would love your donations of:
- Tuna in oil of any size (95g, 185g or 425g)
- Tomato paste
- Coconut cream or milk
- Honey
- Full cream UHT milk 1 litre
- Instant coffee / black tea bags
- Sweet / savoury biscuits
- Basmati rice
- Tinned vegetables (peas, carrots, corn kernels)
- Oil (750ml – 1 litre)
- Dried legumes (chickpeas, split red lentils, yellow split peas)
- Spices (cumin, turmeric, chilli, coriander)
- Laundry powder 1kg packs
- Laundry liquid 1 litre
- Unsalted dried nuts
- Dried fruit
ITEMS WE DON’T RECEIVE/NEED
– Please note that the ASRC does not need baked beans, tinned spaghetti, or tinned soup.
– At this time, we do not require toys or household items or clothes.
Ideas for Success
Make it a competition
A little competition helps raise the stakes. Set a goal for your school or office and have different classes or departments compete to see who collects the most food. Offer an incentive such as a pizza and movies afternoon for the winning team or classroom.
Create a theme
Your food drive can be themed around a season eg Winter Warmers or religious events such as Christmas or Rosh Hashanah. This connection will help keep your food drive relevant, and at the forefront of everyone’s minds.
Build a connection to the cause
Give donors a fact sheet that includes some background information on people seeking asylum who live in our communities, and the work and purpose of the ASRC. Informing your participants helps to connect them with the cause.
Connect with us
Need help from the ASRC? Call 03 9326 6066 (Monday - Friday, 10am - 5pm) to book an appointment.