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“… reducing the amount of food that we waste by just a third could feed all the food-insecure people in this country,” says Emily Broad Leib, director of the Food Law and Policy Clinic at Harvard Law School.

Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

How food donations can help fight hunger and climate change

Harvard Staff Writer

Law Professor Emily Broad Leib examines legal and other hurdles to reducing waste

Every year, nearly 700 million people suffer from hunger around the world, while 1.3 billion tons of food are thrown away. Both food waste and hunger have increased during the pandemic.

It doesn’t have to be that way, said Emily Broad Leib , director of the Food Law and Policy Clinic of the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation at Harvard Law School. The Gazette interviewed Broad Leib about the ways in which food donation could help the fight against hunger as well as climate change.

Emily Broad Leib

GAZETTE: How did you get interested in the subject of food law?

BROAD LEIB: When I went to Harvard Law School, my focus was international human rights. After Law School, I did a fellowship in community development in rural Mississippi, and one of the first projects I worked on was legal training for local farmers and farmers markets. They wanted to grow foods, but they didn’t know what they were allowed to sell. Everything grew from there. There is a huge change around what people want the food system to do. For a lot of the 1900s into the early 2000s, the idea was just that food appears at the store; we buy it; and we bring it to our house. Now people are thinking a lot more about what’s in our food, how it is impacting us, what it is doing to the environment, where it is coming from, and who the workers are who produce this food. A lot of fields are implicated in this, but law has a lot to say in how we answer questions about our priorities, the transparency in the food system, and who are the winners and losers.

GAZETTE: How can food donation help the fight against hunger?

BROAD LEIB: Prior to COVID, there were about 690 million people globally living in hunger, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. Estimates are that, because of COVID, that increased to between 720 to 811 million people, and rates of extreme hunger have also gone up. There are a lot of factors causing hunger. A big piece relates to economics and well-paying jobs, but hunger also is a day-to-day need, and long-term solutions, while they’re necessary, can’t resolve the day-to-day problem that people are facing. There is a movement to think about the right to food, which a lot of countries recognize, as one that includes the right to not have food go to waste. We put a lot of energy into producing that food, and the best thing that we can do is make sure that it goes to someone who is in need. In the U.S., there is data that shows that reducing the amount of food that we waste by just a third could feed all the food-insecure people in this country. There is nothing worse than thinking about people being in hunger while watching surplus food rot in the field or get thrown into a dumpster.

GAZETTE : What are the obstacles in the law that prevent food donation?

BROAD LEIB: There are two sides to it. On one side, there are actual legal and policy barriers to donating, and they can be real or perceived. As an example of a perceived barrier, in the U.S., we don’t mention food donation in any of our food safety laws. We’re strict about food safety; almost everything is regulated but so often food is wasted because it’s not clear what can you do with the food, whether it is allowed to be donated or not.

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In some countries, there are real barriers to donating food. In our research, we found that in some countries, there is a tax penalty for donating food instead of throwing it away. This happens in Argentina. In general, businesses that acquire food have to pay a value added tax [VAT] and can recover that money from the consumer. In Argentina, when you throw food away, you can claim a credit from the government for the VAT that you paid, but when you donate food, you can’t claim that same credit. There is a real economic penalty to donating versus throwing it away.

On the other side, there is a lack of incentive to donate food. In many countries, there is no tax benefit, or if there is, it’s very low. Also, it’s not necessarily cost-effective to donate food because you need to treat it carefully, have extra space in your freezers and trucks to transport it, and you need to train workers. Thinking about food coming from the farm, in the U.S., recent estimates say that we probably waste 13 million tons per year of food on the farm that doesn’t get harvested because either it’s not up to the aesthetic standards or the farmer met their goal for the contract and there’s extra that they just don’t need. There is a cost associated with harvesting and transporting that food, and if you can’t make the numbers work for businesses, it’s hard to say to them that we want them to spend all this money and time doing what’s good for society if that’s not actually going to make economic sense for them.

Part of our work has been to explore the different categories of barriers and the universal issues that people bring up when it comes to food donation. That has been our work in the Global Food Donation Policy Atlas , a project we conduct in partnership with the nonprofit Global FoodBanking Network that maps barriers and best practices to food donation around the world.

GAZETTE : What are the main findings of this atlas?

BROAD LEIB : In the first year, we picked a range of five countries (out of our initial list of 15) to look at the universal issues surrounding food donation. Now we’re looking at a broader set of countries to compare their policies and see who has the best practice or the best policy on various areas related to food donation. The atlas is trying to answer those questions and help users identify the very strongest model laws, while giving also specific useful tools to each individual country. For each participating country, we include a detailed legal guide of their current laws that food banks or food donors can use right now to find out what is allowed and what is not. There are recommendations for what are the top few changes, based on our conversations with our food bank partners, governments, and businesses, that really need to happen to make food donation more of a habit rather than being taboo or something that only happens occasionally.

GAZETTE: How do U.S. food donation policies compare to other countries in your atlas?

BROAD LEIB: When we first started the project, we thought the U.S. could strengthen its own policies, but when you look around the world, there are areas where we might be better off than other countries. It doesn’t mean that we have it right 100 percent. There are areas where we’re behind, such as date labeling on food products. We have all the resources and the capability of making those dates clear and comprehensible, and we’re just not doing it. The EU is blowing us out of the water; the U.K. has clear standard labels on food and guidance documents for consumers, businesses, and food banks about how foods can be eaten after the expiration date or can be donated. They’re light years ahead of us. But in terms of tax incentives for food donors, we have the most generous of any country. Food donors in the U.S. can get a very good incentive when they donate food, and that could be an example for other countries to follow. Over time, we’ll add more countries to the atlas, but even now you can get a good idea on where the hotspots are, where we’re doing well, and where we can make progress.

GAZETTE: How much of the food produced in the U.S. is donated?

BROAD LEIB: Studies estimate that between 7 and 10 percent of the U.S. surplus food gets donated. The rest of the surplus food goes to landfills; some to combustion, which is incinerated. There is so much edible food that is getting thrown away. It’s so disheartening. If you go behind any store and look in its dumpster, a large majority of what is in there could be in my refrigerator right now.

GAZETTE: How can food donation help the fight against climate change?

BROAD LEIB : The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC] put out a report 18 months ago about food production and climate change, in which they found that about 8 to 10 percent of global anthropogenic emissions come from food waste. That is a sizable amount. There are lots of other places where we can reduce emissions, but it’s going to be tricky because those emissions meet other needs; we need electricity, energy. Reducing food waste seems to be one of those areas that is a win-win situation. No one is benefiting when we throw food away. The production of food itself causes emissions, and when the food goes to the landfill, it’s a huge emitter of methane. So that’s not good on either end of it.

GAZETTE: What is the impact of COVID on hunger and food waste?

BROAD LEIB: Hunger has increased because of COVID but so has food waste. In a lot of cases, it’s because certain supply chains got shut down. Food that typically goes to hotels or restaurants — and this also happened in the U.S. — suddenly had to be wasted because nobody knew where to send the food, and our supply chain wasn’t flexible enough to get all that food to grocery stores or food pantries. Feeding America, the network of food banks in the U.S., has seen an increase of need for food bank services, and that 75 percent of the people knocking on their doors were first-time users of food banks. Much of the food that goes to waste is totally fine and edible and it gets wasted because of log jams in the marketplace or confusion over date labels.

GAZETTE:  What would you like to see happening in the landscape of food donation policies?

BROAD LEIB:   We’ve already seen a lot more awareness about these topics and I think that will manifest in both being more thoughtful about food waste and food donation, but also around treating the land and workers in the food supply better. Every meal that we eat is magical when you think about how all these things came together, and they’re all only renewable resources if we treat them with respect, including the workers. My hope is that we’re moving toward a direction where there’s more respect for all the ingredients in the food system.

I’ve done a lot of research domestically around law school teaching and scholarship on food systems, and I’m doing a project now looking at teaching in law schools globally in this field. I think there is a real opportunity for learning and collaboration about these issues amongst lawyers. My hope is also that there are more active partnerships across countries on not just food donation, but on other food policy issues as well. At this point, more than 25 students from Harvard Law School have been involved in the atlas, and I wanted to acknowledge that. Part of my hope is that we’re training thoughtful leaders in this space who can evolve and build on this work in the future.

This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.

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Six brilliant student essays on the power of food to spark social change.

Read winning essays from our fall 2018 “Feeding Ourselves, Feeding Our Revolutions,” student writing contest.

For the Fall 2018 student writing competition, “Feeding Ourselves, Feeding Our Revolutions,” we invited students to read the YES! Magazine article, “Cooking Stirs the Pot for Social Change,”   by Korsha Wilson and respond to this writing prompt: If you were to host a potluck or dinner to discuss a challenge facing your community or country, what food would you cook? Whom would you invite? On what issue would you deliberate? 

The Winners

From the hundreds of essays written, these six—on anti-Semitism, cultural identity, death row prisoners, coming out as transgender, climate change, and addiction—were chosen as essay winners.  Be sure to read the literary gems and catchy titles that caught our eye.

Middle School Winner: India Brown High School Winner: Grace Williams University Winner: Lillia Borodkin Powerful Voice Winner: Paisley Regester Powerful Voice Winner: Emma Lingo Powerful Voice Winner: Hayden Wilson

Literary Gems Clever Titles

Middle School Winner: India Brown  

A Feast for the Future

Close your eyes and imagine the not too distant future: The Statue of Liberty is up to her knees in water, the streets of lower Manhattan resemble the canals of Venice, and hurricanes arrive in the fall and stay until summer. Now, open your eyes and see the beautiful planet that we will destroy if we do not do something. Now is the time for change. Our future is in our control if we take actions, ranging from small steps, such as not using plastic straws, to large ones, such as reducing fossil fuel consumption and electing leaders who take the problem seriously.

 Hosting a dinner party is an extraordinary way to publicize what is at stake. At my potluck, I would serve linguini with clams. The clams would be sautéed in white wine sauce. The pasta tossed with a light coat of butter and topped with freshly shredded parmesan. I choose this meal because it cannot be made if global warming’s patterns persist. Soon enough, the ocean will be too warm to cultivate clams, vineyards will be too sweltering to grow grapes, and wheat fields will dry out, leaving us without pasta.

I think that giving my guests a delicious meal and then breaking the news to them that its ingredients would be unattainable if Earth continues to get hotter is a creative strategy to initiate action. Plus, on the off chance the conversation gets drastically tense, pasta is a relatively difficult food to throw.

In YES! Magazine’s article, “Cooking Stirs the Pot for Social Change,” Korsha Wilson says “…beyond the narrow definition of what cooking is, you can see that cooking is and has always been an act of resistance.” I hope that my dish inspires people to be aware of what’s at stake with increasing greenhouse gas emissions and work toward creating a clean energy future.

 My guest list for the potluck would include two groups of people: local farmers, who are directly and personally affected by rising temperatures, increased carbon dioxide, drought, and flooding, and people who either do not believe in human-caused climate change or don’t think it affects anyone. I would invite the farmers or farm owners because their jobs and crops are dependent on the weather. I hope that after hearing a farmer’s perspective, climate-deniers would be awakened by the truth and more receptive to the effort to reverse these catastrophic trends.

Earth is a beautiful planet that provides everything we’ll ever need, but because of our pattern of living—wasteful consumption, fossil fuel burning, and greenhouse gas emissions— our habitat is rapidly deteriorating. Whether you are a farmer, a long-shower-taking teenager, a worker in a pollution-producing factory, or a climate-denier, the future of humankind is in our hands. The choices we make and the actions we take will forever affect planet Earth.

 India Brown is an eighth grader who lives in New York City with her parents and older brother. She enjoys spending time with her friends, walking her dog, Morty, playing volleyball and lacrosse, and swimming.

High School Winner: Grace Williams

Apple Pie Embrace

It’s 1:47 a.m. Thanksgiving smells fill the kitchen. The sweet aroma of sugar-covered apples and buttery dough swirls into my nostrils. Fragrant orange and rosemary permeate the room and every corner smells like a stroll past the open door of a French bakery. My eleven-year-old eyes water, red with drowsiness, and refocus on the oven timer counting down. Behind me, my mom and aunt chat to no end, fueled by the seemingly self-replenishable coffee pot stashed in the corner. Their hands work fast, mashing potatoes, crumbling cornbread, and covering finished dishes in a thin layer of plastic wrap. The most my tired body can do is sit slouched on the backless wooden footstool. I bask in the heat escaping under the oven door.

 As a child, I enjoyed Thanksgiving and the preparations that came with it, but it seemed like more of a bridge between my birthday and Christmas than an actual holiday. Now, it’s a time of year I look forward to, dedicated to family, memories, and, most importantly, food. What I realized as I grew older was that my homemade Thanksgiving apple pie was more than its flaky crust and soft-fruit center. This American food symbolized a rite of passage, my Iraqi family’s ticket to assimilation. 

 Some argue that by adopting American customs like the apple pie, we lose our culture. I would argue that while American culture influences what my family eats and celebrates, it doesn’t define our character. In my family, we eat Iraqi dishes like mesta and tahini, but we also eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch for breakfast. This doesn’t mean we favor one culture over the other; instead, we create a beautiful blend of the two, adapting traditions to make them our own.

 That said, my family has always been more than the “mashed potatoes and turkey” type.

My mom’s family immigrated to the United States in 1976. Upon their arrival, they encountered a deeply divided America. Racism thrived, even after the significant freedoms gained from the Civil Rights Movement a few years before. Here, my family was thrust into a completely unknown world: they didn’t speak the language, they didn’t dress normally, and dinners like riza maraka seemed strange in comparison to the Pop Tarts and Oreos lining grocery store shelves.

 If I were to host a dinner party, it would be like Thanksgiving with my Chaldean family. The guests, my extended family, are a diverse people, distinct ingredients in a sweet potato casserole, coming together to create a delicious dish.

In her article “Cooking Stirs the Pot for Social Change,” Korsha Wilson writes, “each ingredient that we use, every technique, every spice tells a story about our access, our privilege, our heritage, and our culture.” Voices around the room will echo off the walls into the late hours of the night while the hot apple pie steams at the table’s center.

We will play concan on the blanketed floor and I’ll try to understand my Toto, who, after forty years, still speaks broken English. I’ll listen to my elders as they tell stories about growing up in Unionville, Michigan, a predominately white town where they always felt like outsiders, stories of racism that I have the privilege not to experience. While snacking on sunflower seeds and salted pistachios, we’ll talk about the news- how thousands of people across the country are protesting for justice among immigrants. No one protested to give my family a voice.

Our Thanksgiving food is more than just sustenance, it is a physical representation of my family ’s blended and ever-changing culture, even after 40 years in the United States. No matter how the food on our plates changes, it will always symbolize our sense of family—immediate and extended—and our unbreakable bond.

Grace Williams, a student at Kirkwood High School in Kirkwood, Missouri, enjoys playing tennis, baking, and spending time with her family. Grace also enjoys her time as a writing editor for her school’s yearbook, the Pioneer. In the future, Grace hopes to continue her travels abroad, as well as live near extended family along the sunny beaches of La Jolla, California.

University Winner: Lillia Borodkin

Nourishing Change After Tragedy Strikes

In the Jewish community, food is paramount. We often spend our holidays gathered around a table, sharing a meal and reveling in our people’s story. On other sacred days, we fast, focusing instead on reflection, atonement, and forgiveness.

As a child, I delighted in the comfort of matzo ball soup, the sweetness of hamantaschen, and the beauty of braided challah. But as I grew older and more knowledgeable about my faith, I learned that the origins of these foods are not rooted in joy, but in sacrifice.

The matzo of matzo balls was a necessity as the Jewish people did not have time for their bread to rise as they fled slavery in Egypt. The hamantaschen was an homage to the hat of Haman, the villain of the Purim story who plotted the Jewish people’s destruction. The unbaked portion of braided challah was tithed by commandment to the kohen  or priests. Our food is an expression of our history, commemorating both our struggles and our triumphs.

As I write this, only days have passed since eleven Jews were killed at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. These people, intending only to pray and celebrate the Sabbath with their community, were murdered simply for being Jewish. This brutal event, in a temple and city much like my own, is a reminder that anti-Semitism still exists in this country. A reminder that hatred of Jews, of me, my family, and my community, is alive and flourishing in America today. The thought that a difference in religion would make some believe that others do not have the right to exist is frightening and sickening.  

 This is why, if given the chance, I would sit down the entire Jewish American community at one giant Shabbat table. I’d serve matzo ball soup, pass around loaves of challah, and do my best to offer comfort. We would take time to remember the beautiful souls lost to anti-Semitism this October and the countless others who have been victims of such hatred in the past. I would then ask that we channel all we are feeling—all the fear, confusion, and anger —into the fight.

As suggested in Korsha Wilson’s “Cooking Stirs the Pot for Social Change,” I would urge my guests to direct our passion for justice and the comfort and care provided by the food we are eating into resisting anti-Semitism and hatred of all kinds.

We must use the courage this sustenance provides to create change and honor our people’s suffering and strength. We must remind our neighbors, both Jewish and non-Jewish, that anti-Semitism is alive and well today. We must shout and scream and vote until our elected leaders take this threat to our community seriously. And, we must stand with, support, and listen to other communities that are subjected to vengeful hate today in the same way that many of these groups have supported us in the wake of this tragedy.

This terrible shooting is not the first of its kind, and if conflict and loathing are permitted to grow, I fear it will not be the last. While political change may help, the best way to target this hate is through smaller-scale actions in our own communities.

It is critical that we as a Jewish people take time to congregate and heal together, but it is equally necessary to include those outside the Jewish community to build a powerful crusade against hatred and bigotry. While convening with these individuals, we will work to end the dangerous “otherizing” that plagues our society and seek to understand that we share far more in common than we thought. As disagreements arise during our discussions, we will learn to respect and treat each other with the fairness we each desire. Together, we shall share the comfort, strength, and courage that traditional Jewish foods provide and use them to fuel our revolution. 

We are not alone in the fight despite what extremists and anti-semites might like us to believe.  So, like any Jew would do, I invite you to join me at the Shabbat table. First, we will eat. Then, we will get to work.  

Lillia Borodkin is a senior at Kent State University majoring in Psychology with a concentration in Child Psychology. She plans to attend graduate school and become a school psychologist while continuing to pursue her passion for reading and writing. Outside of class, Lillia is involved in research in the psychology department and volunteers at the Women’s Center on campus.   

Powerful Voice Winner: Paisley Regester

As a kid, I remember asking my friends jokingly, ”If you were stuck on a deserted island, what single item of food would you bring?” Some of my friends answered practically and said they’d bring water. Others answered comically and said they’d bring snacks like Flamin’ Hot Cheetos or a banana. However, most of my friends answered sentimentally and listed the foods that made them happy. This seems like fun and games, but what happens if the hypothetical changes? Imagine being asked, on the eve of your death, to choose the final meal you will ever eat. What food would you pick? Something practical? Comical? Sentimental?  

This situation is the reality for the 2,747 American prisoners who are currently awaiting execution on death row. The grim ritual of “last meals,” when prisoners choose their final meal before execution, can reveal a lot about these individuals and what they valued throughout their lives.

It is difficult for us to imagine someone eating steak, lobster tail, apple pie, and vanilla ice cream one moment and being killed by state-approved lethal injection the next. The prisoner can only hope that the apple pie he requested tastes as good as his mom’s. Surprisingly, many people in prison decline the option to request a special last meal. We often think of food as something that keeps us alive, so is there really any point to eating if someone knows they are going to die?

“Controlling food is a means of controlling power,” said chef Sean Sherman in the YES! Magazine article “Cooking Stirs the Pot for Social Change,” by Korsha Wilson. There are deeper stories that lie behind the final meals of individuals on death row.

I want to bring awareness to the complex and often controversial conditions of this country’s criminal justice system and change the common perception of prisoners as inhuman. To accomplish this, I would host a potluck where I would recreate the last meals of prisoners sentenced to death.

In front of each plate, there would be a place card with the prisoner’s full name, the date of execution, and the method of execution. These meals could range from a plate of fried chicken, peas with butter, apple pie, and a Dr. Pepper, reminiscent of a Sunday dinner at Grandma’s, to a single olive.

Seeing these meals up close, meals that many may eat at their own table or feed to their own kids, would force attendees to face the reality of the death penalty. It will urge my guests to look at these individuals not just as prisoners, assigned a number and a death date, but as people, capable of love and rehabilitation.  

This potluck is not only about realizing a prisoner’s humanity, but it is also about recognizing a flawed criminal justice system. Over the years, I have become skeptical of the American judicial system, especially when only seven states have judges who ethnically represent the people they serve. I was shocked when I found out that the officers who killed Michael Brown and Anthony Lamar Smith were exonerated for their actions. How could that be possible when so many teens and adults of color have spent years in prison, some even executed, for crimes they never committed?  

Lawmakers, police officers, city officials, and young constituents, along with former prisoners and their families, would be invited to my potluck to start an honest conversation about the role and application of inequality, dehumanization, and racism in the death penalty. Food served at the potluck would represent the humanity of prisoners and push people to acknowledge that many inmates are victims of a racist and corrupt judicial system.

Recognizing these injustices is only the first step towards a more equitable society. The second step would be acting on these injustices to ensure that every voice is heard, even ones separated from us by prison walls. Let’s leave that for the next potluck, where I plan to serve humble pie.

Paisley Regester is a high school senior and devotes her life to activism, the arts, and adventure. Inspired by her experiences traveling abroad to Nicaragua, Mexico, and Scotland, Paisley hopes to someday write about the diverse people and places she has encountered and share her stories with the rest of the world.

Powerful Voice Winner: Emma Lingo

The Empty Seat

“If you aren’t sober, then I don’t want to see you on Christmas.”

Harsh words for my father to hear from his daughter but words he needed to hear. Words I needed him to understand and words he seemed to consider as he fiddled with his wine glass at the head of the table. Our guests, my grandma, and her neighbors remained resolutely silent. They were not about to defend my drunken father–or Charles as I call him–from my anger or my ultimatum.

This was the first dinner we had had together in a year. The last meal we shared ended with Charles slopping his drink all over my birthday presents and my mother explaining heroin addiction to me. So, I wasn’t surprised when Charles threw down some liquid valor before dinner in anticipation of my anger. If he wanted to be welcomed on Christmas, he needed to be sober—or he needed to be gone.

Countless dinners, holidays, and birthdays taught me that my demands for sobriety would fall on deaf ears. But not this time. Charles gave me a gift—a one of a kind, limited edition, absolutely awkward treat. One that I didn’t know how to deal with at all. Charles went home that night, smacked a bright red bow on my father, and hand-delivered him to me on Christmas morning.

He arrived for breakfast freshly showered and looking flustered. He would remember this day for once only because his daughter had scolded him into sobriety. Dad teetered between happiness and shame. Grandma distracted us from Dad’s presence by bringing the piping hot bacon and biscuits from the kitchen to the table, theatrically announcing their arrival. Although these foods were the alleged focus of the meal, the real spotlight shined on the unopened liquor cabinet in my grandma’s kitchen—the cabinet I know Charles was begging Dad to open.

I’ve isolated myself from Charles. My family has too. It means we don’t see Dad, but it’s the best way to avoid confrontation and heartache. Sometimes I find myself wondering what it would be like if we talked with him more or if he still lived nearby. Would he be less inclined to use? If all families with an addict tried to hang on to a relationship with the user, would there be fewer addicts in the world? Christmas breakfast with Dad was followed by Charles whisking him away to Colorado where pot had just been legalized. I haven’t talked to Dad since that Christmas.

As Korsha Wilson stated in her YES! Magazine article, “Cooking Stirs the Pot for Social Change,” “Sometimes what we don’t cook says more than what we do cook.” When it comes to addiction, what isn’t served is more important than what is. In quiet moments, I like to imagine a meal with my family–including Dad. He’d have a spot at the table in my little fantasy. No alcohol would push him out of his chair, the cigarettes would remain seated in his back pocket, and the stench of weed wouldn’t invade the dining room. Fruit salad and gumbo would fill the table—foods that Dad likes. We’d talk about trivial matters in life, like how school is going and what we watched last night on TV.

Dad would feel loved. We would connect. He would feel less alone. At the end of the night, he’d walk me to the door and promise to see me again soon. And I would believe him.

Emma Lingo spends her time working as an editor for her school paper, reading, and being vocal about social justice issues. Emma is active with many clubs such as Youth and Government, KHS Cares, and Peer Helpers. She hopes to be a journalist one day and to be able to continue helping out people by volunteering at local nonprofits.

Powerful Voice Winner: Hayden Wilson

Bittersweet Reunion

I close my eyes and envision a dinner of my wildest dreams. I would invite all of my relatives. Not just my sister who doesn’t ask how I am anymore. Not just my nephews who I’m told are too young to understand me. No, I would gather all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins to introduce them to the me they haven’t met.

For almost two years, I’ve gone by a different name that most of my family refuses to acknowledge. My aunt, a nun of 40 years, told me at a recent birthday dinner that she’d heard of my “nickname.” I didn’t want to start a fight, so I decided not to correct her. Even the ones who’ve adjusted to my name have yet to recognize the bigger issue.

Last year on Facebook, I announced to my friends and family that I am transgender. No one in my family has talked to me about it, but they have plenty to say to my parents. I feel as if this is about my parents more than me—that they’ve made some big parenting mistake. Maybe if I invited everyone to dinner and opened up a discussion, they would voice their concerns to me instead of my parents.

I would serve two different meals of comfort food to remind my family of our good times. For my dad’s family, I would cook heavily salted breakfast food, the kind my grandpa used to enjoy. He took all of his kids to IHOP every Sunday and ordered the least healthy option he could find, usually some combination of an overcooked omelet and a loaded Classic Burger. For my mom’s family, I would buy shakes and burgers from Hardee’s. In my grandma’s final weeks, she let aluminum tins of sympathy meals pile up on her dining table while she made my uncle take her to Hardee’s every day.

In her article on cooking and activism, food writer Korsha Wilson writes, “Everyone puts down their guard over a good meal, and in that space, change is possible.” Hopefully the same will apply to my guests.

When I first thought of this idea, my mind rushed to the endless negative possibilities. My nun-aunt and my two non-nun aunts who live like nuns would whip out their Bibles before I even finished my first sentence. My very liberal, state representative cousin would say how proud she is of the guy I’m becoming, but this would trigger my aunts to accuse her of corrupting my mind. My sister, who has never spoken to me about my genderidentity, would cover her children’s ears and rush them out of the house. My Great-Depression-raised grandparents would roll over in their graves, mumbling about how kids have it easy nowadays.

After mentally mapping out every imaginable terrible outcome this dinner could have, I realized a conversation is unavoidable if I want my family to accept who I am. I long to restore the deep connection I used to have with them. Though I often think these former relationships are out of reach, I won’t know until I try to repair them. For a year and a half, I’ve relied on Facebook and my parents to relay messages about my identity, but I need to tell my own story.

At first, I thought Korsha Wilson’s idea of a cooked meal leading the way to social change was too optimistic, but now I understand that I need to think more like her. Maybe, just maybe, my family could all gather around a table, enjoy some overpriced shakes, and be as close as we were when I was a little girl.

 Hayden Wilson is a 17-year-old high school junior from Missouri. He loves writing, making music, and painting. He’s a part of his school’s writing club, as well as the GSA and a few service clubs.

 Literary Gems

We received many outstanding essays for the Fall 2018 Writing Competition. Though not every participant can win the contest, we’d like to share some excerpts that caught our eye.

Thinking of the main staple of the dish—potatoes, the starchy vegetable that provides sustenance for people around the globe. The onion, the layers of sorrow and joy—a base for this dish served during the holidays.  The oil, symbolic of hope and perseverance. All of these elements come together to form this delicious oval pancake permeating with possibilities. I wonder about future possibilities as I flip the latkes.

—Nikki Markman, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, California

The egg is a treasure. It is a fragile heart of gold that once broken, flows over the blemishless surface of the egg white in dandelion colored streams, like ribbon unraveling from its spool.

—Kaylin Ku, West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South, Princeton Junction, New Jersey

If I were to bring one food to a potluck to create social change by addressing anti-Semitism, I would bring gefilte fish because it is different from other fish, just like the Jews are different from other people.  It looks more like a matzo ball than fish, smells extraordinarily fishy, and tastes like sweet brine with the consistency of a crab cake.

—Noah Glassman, Ethical Culture Fieldston School,  Bronx, New York

I would not only be serving them something to digest, I would serve them a one-of-a-kind taste of the past, a taste of fear that is felt in the souls of those whose home and land were taken away, a taste of ancestral power that still lives upon us, and a taste of the voices that want to be heard and that want the suffering of the Natives to end.

—Citlalic Anima Guevara, Wichita North High School, Wichita, Kansas

It’s the one thing that your parents make sure you have because they didn’t.  Food is what your mother gives you as she lies, telling you she already ate. It’s something not everybody is fortunate to have and it’s also what we throw away without hesitation.  Food is a blessing to me, but what is it to you?

—Mohamed Omar, Kirkwood High School, Kirkwood, Missouri

Filleted and fried humphead wrasse, mangrove crab with coconut milk, pounded taro, a whole roast pig, and caramelized nuts—cuisines that will not be simplified to just “food.” Because what we eat is the diligence and pride of our people—a culture that has survived and continues to thrive.

—Mayumi Remengesau, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, California

Some people automatically think I’m kosher or ask me to say prayers in Hebrew.  However, guess what? I don’t know many prayers and I eat bacon.

—Hannah Reing, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, The Bronx, New York

Everything was placed before me. Rolling up my sleeves I started cracking eggs, mixing flour, and sampling some chocolate chips, because you can never be too sure. Three separate bowls. All different sizes. Carefully, I tipped the smallest, and the medium-sized bowls into the biggest. Next, I plugged in my hand-held mixer and flicked on the switch. The beaters whirl to life. I lowered it into the bowl and witnessed the creation of something magnificent. Cookie dough.

—Cassandra Amaya, Owen Goodnight Middle School, San Marcos, Texas

Biscuits and bisexuality are both things that are in my life…My grandmother’s biscuits are the best: the good old classic Southern biscuits, crunchy on the outside, fluffy on the inside. Except it is mostly Southern people who don’t accept me.

—Jaden Huckaby, Arbor Montessori, Decatur, Georgia

We zest the bright yellow lemons and the peels of flavor fall lightly into the batter.  To make frosting, we keep adding more and more powdered sugar until it looks like fluffy clouds with raspberry seed rain.

—Jane Minus, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Bronx, New York

Tamales for my grandma, I can still remember her skillfully spreading the perfect layer of masa on every corn husk, looking at me pitifully as my young hands fumbled with the corn wrapper, always too thick or too thin.

—Brenna Eliaz, San Marcos High School, San Marcos, Texas

Just like fry bread, MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat) remind New Orleanians and others affected by disasters of the devastation throughout our city and the little amount of help we got afterward.

—Madeline Johnson, Spring Hill College, Mobile, Alabama

I would bring cream corn and buckeyes and have a big debate on whether marijuana should be illegal or not.

—Lillian Martinez, Miller Middle School, San Marcos, Texas

We would finish the meal off with a delicious apple strudel, topped with schlag, schlag, schlag, more schlag, and a cherry, and finally…more schlag (in case you were wondering, schlag is like whipped cream, but 10 times better because it is heavier and sweeter).

—Morgan Sheehan, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Bronx, New York

Clever Titles

This year we decided to do something different. We were so impressed by the number of catchy titles that we decided to feature some of our favorites. 

“Eat Like a Baby: Why Shame Has No Place at a Baby’s Dinner Plate”

—Tate Miller, Wichita North High School, Wichita, Kansas 

“The Cheese in Between”

—Jedd Horowitz, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Bronx, New York

“Harvey, Michael, Florence or Katrina? Invite Them All Because Now We Are Prepared”

—Molly Mendoza, Spring Hill College, Mobile, Alabama

“Neglecting Our Children: From Broccoli to Bullets”

—Kylie Rollings, Kirkwood High School, Kirkwood, Missouri  

“The Lasagna of Life”

—Max Williams, Wichita North High School, Wichita, Kansas

“Yum, Yum, Carbon Dioxide In Our Lungs”

—Melanie Eickmeyer, Kirkwood High School, Kirkwood, Missouri

“My Potluck, My Choice”

—Francesca Grossberg, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Bronx, New York

“Trumping with Tacos”

—Maya Goncalves, Lincoln Middle School, Ypsilanti, Michigan

“Quiche and Climate Change”

—Bernie Waldman, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Bronx, New York

“Biscuits and Bisexuality”

“W(health)”

—Miles Oshan, San Marcos High School, San Marcos, Texas

“Bubula, Come Eat!”

—Jordan Fienberg, Ethical Culture Fieldston School,  Bronx, New York

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Food Donation and Food Drive: Strategies to Achieve Zero Hunger

• Reference work entry
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• Michele F. Fontefrancesco 6  

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals ((ENUNSDG))

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A food drive is a charity initiative aimed at collecting nonperishable food items to stock and distributed directly or through food banks, soup kitchens, and other charitable institutions to people in need. The initiative is part of a broader system of collection and redistribution that involves a plurality of actors of the voluntary sector. The initiative is commonly employed in Western countries and used to tackle urban poverty as well as to contribute to hunger relief in developing countries or in case of humanitarian crises. Food drives contribute both tangibly to UNSDG 2 “Zero Hunger,” by collecting and redistributing food, and intangibly, by raising awareness on issues, such as urban poverty, unbalance food access, and famine relief.

Poverty and Food Access

Poverty is a debated concept in the social sciences (Villemez 2000 ). It is related to the condition of lack of material possessions needed to reach “ the minimum necessaries for the maintenance of merely...

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Michele F. Fontefrancesco

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Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, The University of Passo Fundo, Passo Fundo, Brazil

Luciana Brandli

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Pinar Gökçin Özuyar

International Centre for Thriving, University of Chester, Chester, UK

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Fontefrancesco, M.F. (2020). Food Donation and Food Drive: Strategies to Achieve Zero Hunger. In: Leal Filho, W., Azul, A.M., Brandli, L., Özuyar, P.G., Wall, T. (eds) Zero Hunger. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95675-6_15

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THE IMPACT OF FOOD BANK PROGRAMS AND SERVICES TO COMMUNITIES IN NEED

Mar 30, 2021 | 0 comments

Food banks consist of individuals and groups who share the same general philosophy: helping people in need. Members committed to enabling food banks to operate work together to deliver help to different communities and meet their most basic needs. In many ways, this philosophy is parallel with volunteerism, which is why most people who help set these goals in motion are volunteers.

Members and volunteers take a vested interest in those whom they are helping. They often have different backgrounds and aim to use their resources to serve their clients. It goes to show that the role of food banks in society is highly significant to many communities.

Let’s discuss more about how food banks impact the communities they serve and how anyone with a more fortunate status in society can also help others with what they have.

How do Food Banks Help Communities?

With consumer prices that have constantly been rising in today’s society, it has not been easy for the many individuals and families experiencing poverty. Food banks help provide low-income families a convenient way to access complete and balanced nutrition, such as eating healthy, tasty foods that they can’t always easily afford.

They distribute all kinds of food to people in need, including fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, meats, dairy products, and processed foods. Unlike other charities, the goods stored in food banks are donated by participating partners, businesses, private organizations, or individuals. A majority of the supplies come straight from the farms and central warehouses/manufacturers.

Since most of the food bank’s resources are utilized to provide food to the less fortunate, they often provide a vital service to communities that would otherwise be hard-pressed even to have access to food assistance.

The mission and vision of food banks affect the families who receive the goods and will not have to worry about where they will get the food to live on or if they will be able to find food to eat at all. By supplying the means to afford healthy food to poverty-stricken families, food banks have shown that they are committed to creating an impact on the community. Ultimately, mobilizing the distribution of donated goods reduces the poverty rate and substantially helps fight hunger in one community to another. These organizations even ensure that they only provide nutritious and fresh foods to the recipients.

Do Food Banks Have Effective Initiatives in Supplying Healthy Food?

Food bank community services were founded because there was a rising need felt by many, especially those with limited capacity to support themselves or their families independently. With the volunteers’ help, food banks have expanded and extended their services to include more people in areas they otherwise would not have served.

However, issues on how effective their strategies are in providing healthy food supplies to targeted areas are still in question.

So, are food banks effective at doing so?

One of the main goals of food banks is to meet healthy food standards for the communities. And since everyone in the group shares a common goal, it creates an environment of camaraderie that enables effective initiatives to improve the recipient’s diet quality consistently. When food banks distribute the goods to shelters, they ensure that they provide ample food nutrition sources.

How to Participate in Food Bank Programs

Many people do not realize how difficult it can be for others to have regular food supplies, which is why food banks aim to reduce that portion of the population with the help of partners, donations, and volunteers. By offering food bank community services, people can experience this type of environment and develop sharing the same values with others who may be less fortunate than they are.

Food bank services are often funded by the various agencies part of the programs. This means that there is always a need for volunteers to continue to operate food bank services.

If you are looking for an excellent way to participate in helping food banks uphold their vision and achieve their goals, there are several options you can explore.

Aside from volunteering, donating is the most common way to mobilize food banks. You can drop off goods or donate money to fund other resources.

When you reach out to a food bank, you can speak to the manager or other volunteers, and they will be able to give you more information about the services and programs you can help with.

Other Programs and Services ​ What is even better about food bank programs is that their functions are not limited to feeding low-income families. Food banks are connected to other programs that help residents gain access to resources, information, and referral assistance to find ways to improve their income level.

Food banks are an essential part of our society as they help people who may be in dire need. As an organization, their goal is to provide families with the necessities, which they wouldn’t usually have access to. The impact of food banks is that they offer an essential service that sometimes these simple acts can even save lives.

There is often an economic activity that takes place through food bank operations. The impact of food banks isn’t just on the people who use them but on those people who supply the food. Often, community leaders come together to coordinate activities and events of the food bank. This enables the food bank to continue to provide a service that is needed in the community while generating new business. As a result, many organizations and communities benefit from several food bank programs.

Second Harvest of the Greater Valley has partner agencies and program sites that help over 35,000 individuals in need each month in San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, and the Mother Lode Counties. Be part of the change we want to make! Visit us here to learn more on how to get help or donate.

• Press Release: 11th Annual Empty Bowls “Access” Fundraising Event August 5, 2024
• Press Release: Silver Harvest Introduction June 24, 2024
• Press Release: Amazon Teams Up with Second Harvest April 25, 2024
• 2024 Chili Pot Cook Off April 24, 2024
• Press Release: New CEO Announcement February 1, 2024
• How Old Do You Have To Be To Volunteer At The Food Bank November 29, 2023
• How Many Times Can You Go To A Food Bank November 28, 2023
• Food Bank Community Service November 15, 2023
• Can Anyone Get Food From A Food Bank October 15, 2023
• What Food Banks Need But Don’t Ask For September 5, 2023

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• About Create The Good

Do-It-Yourself Project:

Organize a Food Drive

< Back to Browse Projects

Time Needed:  One or More Days

Skills Needed:  No special skills required

Causes:  Hunger, Community, Poverty

Project Categories:  Family Friendly

Created By:

Create the Good ®

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Introduction

Many community-based organizations lack the capacity or resources to meet the needs of the growing population of hungry Americans. Food pantries and other charitable organizations also often run short on food that is age appropriate (e.g., low sodium for seniors), culturally appropriate and/or fresh. Tight economic times have only further burdened these organizations.

How you can get involved

Organize a food drive! Collect food and/or monetary donations for your favorite community-based food organization. There are a few models for how to hold a food drive. This guide focuses on the “single-site drop-off” model, where people bring food donations to a place, on a specific date, where volunteers are waiting to receive it.

"There are people in the world so hungry that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.” Mahatma Gandhi

Step 1: PICK A LOCAL GROUP THAT NEEDS FOOD

Consider both the obvious (food bank and homeless shelter) and the less obvious (faith-based organizations, senior citizen centers, schools). If you want suggestions on food organizations in need, start by contacting your local food bank. You’ll find them listed online at www.feedingamerica.org

Food banks and pantries are all different, so before you start planning, be sure to reach out to learn the best way to meet their needs.

Food banks are warehouses that collect large quantities of food to distribute to local food pantries, soup kitchens, etc. The food bank itself may be interested in benefiting from your drive. Or, they may suggest a local food organization in your neighborhood.

Once you’ve determined what organization will benefit from your drive, use the questions in the Tips for Meeting an Organization's Needs section below to talk with them about your idea and how best to shape it to meet their needs.

Local food organizations often are in short supply of age-appropriate food (e.g., low sodium, low sugar, or easy to open foods) and/or culturally-appropriate foods. Use the Sample Food List in the "Supplemental Materials" section and consider narrowing your requests for donations to these special areas to best meet the needs of the people being served.

If no local organization needs support, consider making a donation to AARP Foundation's Fight Hunger Campaign at www.aarp.org/hunger to help those who are hungry.

Step 2: DECIDE HOW YOU WANT TO COLLECT FOOD

Single-site drop off:  You ask people to bring food donations to one location during set hours on a specific day. Volunteers stay at the collection site.

Extended food drive:  You set up multiple collection points with drop boxes where people can leave food over the course of multiple days or weeks. Volunteers collect the donations once per day.

Food aid groups often lack fresh produce to provide to hungry people.

Event-related food drive : Your team partners with a local event – like a sports game, music festival or county fair – and sets up collection sites at the event.

Step 3: ASSESS VOLUNTEER NEEDS

Establish a small committee to plan and coordinate the food drive. Select an overall coordinator (that may be you) and team leaders for individual tasks. Depending on the size of your food drive, there could be 2 to 6 team leaders.

Teams can help share the work, motivate volunteers/donors and hold each other accountable to deadlines. Many hands make light work!

Schedule a training session for the team leaders. Provide the leaders with background on the selected organizations, a list of key dates/times (timeline of preparation), responsibilities needed to carry out the food drive and contact information for you and the other team leaders.

The team leaders should:

• Help recruit volunteers for the food drive
• Promote the food drive with flyers throughout the community
• Ensure local media are aware of the drive
• Set up the collection site
• Lead a shift during the event
• Help coordinate food sorting and delivery after the drive

Step 4: FIND A DROP-OFF LOCATION

Identify the desired location for food drop-off and collection such as a school, local business, shopping center, faith-based organization or grocery store.

Contact the appropriate person (store manager, principal, etc.) to get permission to hold the drive there and ask if they’d like to participate in any way. When you call, make sure you have information on the food drive (the goal, the preferred date, background on the organization the food will support, etc.).

Depending on the size of the drive and the number of volunteers, you might want to hold it at multiple locations. Keep in mind, this requires more logistical organization and volunteers but will yield more food.

A location that is centrally located, with built-in traffic, a large parking lot and an inside option (in case of bad weather) is ideal.

Once you nail down a location, work out logistics with your contact there:

• Where specifically the food drive can be held (e.g., at the entrance of the store or a section of the parking lot)
• The date and the allowed hours of operation for the drive
• Inclement weather backup plan
• Where the food will be stored before pick up
• Place to accommodate the volunteers who will organize the food for pick up

NOTE: If you are talking to a retailer and they are interested, you might explore additional ways they could support the effort. Examples might include:

• Printing your flyers (the retailer could receive an acknowledgment on the flyer)
• Matching the donations raised from the public for the food drive in some way (with a dollar amount or a product donation from the retailer to the food bank or organization)
• Adding the option at the cash register for customers to donate money to the food organization you are helping

Step 5: RECRUIT AND MANAGE VOLUNTEERS

Ask your family, friends, colleagues, neighbors and faith group members to help make the food drive a success. Check with local community organizations, libraries, schools, senior citizen centers, places of worship, etc. that may already have a pool of volunteers for their own purposes. Email is a great way to keep the volunteers informed. Post the food drive on Create the Good by visiting CreatetheGood.org and selecting "Find Volunteers" from the top menu to recruit more volunteers or to promote the drive.

Develop a roster of all the volunteers. Be sure to get each person’s full name and contact information so you can keep everyone informed during the planning stage.

Host a meeting three to five weeks prior to the food drive so the volunteers understand the goal of the food drive, what is required of them, the timeline of the drive, and background on the selected organization you are supporting. Provide a take-away sheet with the information from the meeting.

Develop a schedule for the volunteers so that you have sufficient support throughout the day. Keep in mind, peak hours will need more volunteers than the early and later hours of the event. Communicate the schedule to all the volunteers two weeks prior to the food drive so there is time for rescheduling if needed.

Suggested tasks for volunteers include:

• Make and distribute flyers/signs for the event
• Promote the event through their contacts and local community organizations
• Staff the event (including set up and take down)
• Transport food donations to the recipient organization
• Follow-up communication, including the results of the drive and thanking the supporters

For more tips on project management, see the Nuts and Bolts Guide for Organizers at http://www.createthegood.org/toolkit/nuts-bolts-project-organizers.  

Step 6: GET THE WORD OUT

The key to a successful food drive is to get the word out about the event. Promote! Promote! Promote! See the Tips for Generating Publicity section below for publicizing your event.

Step 7: FINAL PREP ARRANGEMENTS

Touch base with the recipient organization, your team leaders and your contact person at the drive location to confirm all details, including:

• Plans for box/crate drop-off prior to the drive and food pick-up following the drive
• Food sorting instructions (if any)
• Who will supply tables, chairs and refreshments for the volunteers?
• The staffing schedule for the day of the food drive
• 2- to 3-hour shifts are best
• Create 3 or 4 large signs that your teams can post within a block or two of the food drive on the day of the event
• Be prepared with information for people who tell you they need food. Identify the closest food pantry, as well as the closest place people can go to get assistance in applying for SNAP, the food stamp program (see the SNAP Flyer in the ‘Supplemental Materials’ section below).

Step 8: EVENT DAY

• Set up the food collection site (i.e.. two tables with chairs behind them; refreshments behind the volunteer chairs, boxes/crates clearly labeled for various food types)
• Post the Food Drive signs in visible areas and have flyers available
• Welcome volunteers as they arrive and show them how things will work
• Volunteers (not contributors) should put the food in the appropriate crate to ensure efficiency
• Relax, smile and enjoy the wonderful event that is bringing together the community
• When the drive is over, clean up the area and take down the signs. Leave the area the same (if not cleaner) than when you arrived
• Thank the hosting organization and the volunteers

Step 10: FOLLOW UP (within one week after the event)

Send a thank you note, call or email to all volunteers (using the method by which they prefer to be contacted). Include how much food was donated and whether there are plans for additional food drives or other volunteer opportunities.  Call or write a thank you note to the hosting organization.  Again, let them know how much food was donated and convey their important role in the success of the program and the difference they are making.

While it is still fresh in your mind, develop a list of lessons learned for future events. Check in with the local food organization to see if they have suggestions to include. Keep in touch with volunteers and local communities for further volunteer opportunities.

TIPS FOR MEETING AN ORGANIZATION’S NEEDS

Once you have selected the local program you would like to support, get more information on their needs before you start implementing your plan. Don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions. You’ll want your plan to be well-grounded, and you’ll want to be armed with information for your volunteers!  Here are some suggested areas to discuss:

• Who is a contact person to work with for coordinating the food drive?
• Is this a good time of year for them to receive donations? Identify a date for the food drive that works for them and you
• What types of food are in short supply?
• What specific food is needed?
• Do they need healthy, age-appropriate food, like low-sodium or low-sugar foods, and/or easy-to-open packages?
• Do they need culturally-appropriate products? (these needs will vary by local population)
• Do they need any non-food items?
• Are there any foods or packaging that they cannot accept? Can they accept fresh food?
• What quantities (e.g., large or small packages) of each food type do they prefer?
• What is their preference on how the food should be sorted at the collection site? (e.g., canned food, boxed food, condiments, etc.)
• Does the organization have boxes or crates for sorting the food?
• Determine how the food will be delivered to the organization. Can they pick it up or do you need to deliver it? When is the best time for pick up and delivery?

Get information on the organization that you can provide to volunteers, donors or media outlets.

TIPS FOR GENERATING PUBLICITY

Make a Flyer Be creative but also be sure to provide key information:

• Suggested foods for contribution (specific items requested by the organizations, non-perishable foods, gift cards)
• Date, time and location of the event
• Brief information on the organization that will receive the food
• Look at other food drive flyers to get ideas (see the Catholic Charities food drive flyer in the "Supplemental Materials" section below)

Distribute the Flyer Consider the same sources used for recruiting volunteers (schools, faith-based organizations, community centers) and public places frequented by people including grocery stores, coffee shops, libraries, etc.

Word of Mouth Goes a Long Way Spread the word to your friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers. Talk to them in person or use email or social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) to get the word out. Ask them to spread the word as well. Approach everyone with a friendly, positive attitude. Explain that it will be a fun event focused on a great cause. Use message boards – both online and the old-fashioned way.

Reach the Largest Audience Use your local newspapers, magazines, community guides, websites, radio stations and television and cable access channels to help spread the word about your food drive. The local media often welcome information about community events, and many radio and TV stations and news outlets offer online forms to simplify event promotion. Also try to get the details in school and faith based newsletters or announcements.

How to Contact the Media Ask some volunteers to develop a list of local editors and reporters (names, phone numbers and email addresses). Most newspapers and radio and television stations will list newsroom contact information on their websites. The reporters most interested in your announcement will be community editors.

Email basic details of the event using plain text without any fancy graphics. Put the event’s date in the subject line. The email should include:

• Name of event (_____________ Food Drive)
• Complete date and time of the food drive
• What organization is being supported, and how much food you are hoping to assemble for a specific cause
• Any special guests or events
• Your contact information (for further questions and possible volunteers)

Send your announcements at least two weeks before the food drive day. Follow up with reporters several days after the event to announce the results of the drive, the approximate number of donors and volunteers and where the food will go. Send this information to the same media list.

The best days to send media announcements are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Publicize the Food Drive – Before and After

• Ask permission to display flyers, posters or postcards at coffee shops, libraries, malls and local businesses. Invite local businesses to participate with you.
• Ask local community members to promote the food drive through their local place of faith, clubs, community groups, etc. People are most likely to do this if they’re motivated by the charity that will benefit from the donations.
• Invite a local celebrity – a congressional representative, your mayor or a radio show host – to highlight the need for food and promote the event.

Additional Resources

AARP Foundation Drive to End Hunger  –  https://endseniorhunger.aarp.org/ In the world's wealthiest country, nearly 9 million people age 50 and older have trouble getting enough to eat. What can you do? Learn more about the problem and join AARP and AARP Foundation in solving it. Feeding America  –  www.feedingamerica.org A network of more than 200 food banks supporting approximately 61,000 local charitable agencies and 70,000 programs which provide food directly to individuals and families in need.

The United States Department of Agriculture  – https://www.fns.usda.gov/partnerships/national-hunger-clearinghouse   The USDA Food and Nutrition Information Center has a myriad of resources and ideas for how to address hunger issues in your community.

Meals On Wheels Association of America  –  https://meals-on-wheels.com/volunteer/ Meals on Wheels represents some 5,000 local, community-based Senior Nutrition Programs, which provide well over one million meals to seniors who need them each day. Some programs serve meals at congregate locations like senior centers, some programs deliver meals directly.

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5 tips for an effective food drive

Food drives are an easy way to unite coworkers, students, and community members to make a difference for our neighbors facing hunger. Filling up a food drive box is a tangible way for kids—and adults—to see the impact of their efforts. 

When planning a food drive with your coworkers, church, school, or even your family, there are four easy things to consider that’ll help make your drive successful – and fun.  

Connect with your local food bank before you start your drive 

The first step of any food drive is to check in with the food bank near you . Because every food bank organizes its food drives differently, be sure to ask for information on how you register if they prefer virtual or traditional food drives, if there are food donation guidelines, and where you should drop off food donations. Food banks often have rules around what type of food and household items they can accept from food drives. Also, depending on the season, they may need specific things more than others. 

Food banks may even have a staff member or food drive toolkit to help you with collection boxes, promotional materials, and even ideas on what drives have worked well in your community before!  

Consider a fully virtual food drive.  

Did you know that many food banks prefer virtual food drives over traditional ones ? Because Feeding America and food banks can often purchase food at costs much lower than what you would pay at a grocery store, collecting monetary donations can have a bigger impact than food donations. Plus, setting up an online fundraiser is super easy ! No more heavy boxes of pasta sauce, jars of peanut butter, and rice. 

Start a virtual food drive.

Get your network involved. 

Share your mission with your family and friends through your social media network. Explain your drive and the impact it can have. Maybe, share what inspired you to start a food drive. Doing so may inspire others to join you in the fight against hunger. Also, sharing photos of your progress is a nice way to get folks involved virtually! 

Add cash pledges to the mix. 

Pledges are great for folks who aren’t geologically close to donating. Just get pledgers to donate cash based on the number of food items collected. For example, have them pledge a small amount, maybe $1, $2, or $3, per item. This way, if you collect 100 items and have five pledgers at $1, you’ll be able to deliver $500 and your 100 food items to the food bank! Don’t forget to thank all the folks who donated and share the number of items and dollars given because of your efforts.  

Make it fun!  

Consider having a “voting” box food drive for your group whereby every item donated acts as a “vote” among a couple of options. Whether it is something light-hearted like voting for your favorite summer meal/dessert (having 2-4 options) or something people will get more invested in, like voting for your next team building outing activity for work or an upcoming school field trip’s location. Be sure to inform your group that they can cast as many “votes” as they’d like by donating multiple food items. This works best at a location where folks frequently go to encourage ongoing engagement and a robust voting competition. Remember: folks will be more likely to bring donations in more than once if they are invested in the vote!  

Consider creating teams—workplace departments, school classes, or grades—and making the food drive a friendly competition. For example, have separate collection locations and share the number of items each team has halfway through the competition to encourage and motivate more repeat participation.

How to Run Successful Food Drives to Help Your Community

Forty-one million people struggle with hunger in the United States. Your community is not immune to this problem. The best way to address this food insecurity in your neighborhood is with a food drive. Individuals can run food drives on their own or in conjunction with local nonprofit organizations. Many human service organizations also create…

Forty-one million people struggle with hunger in the United States. Your community is not immune to this problem. The best way to address this food insecurity in your neighborhood is with a food drive.

Individuals can run food drives on their own or in conjunction with local nonprofit organizations. Many human service organizations also create food drives to help solve food insecurity within the community . This blog will help facilitate the creation and success of these initiatives.

This article provides a step-by-step plan to run a successful food drive and ideas to help make it fun and educational.

• What is a food drive?
• The 8 crucial steps to run food drives in your community
• 4 simple ideas for a successful food donation drive

What is a Food Drive?

A food drive is a type of fundraiser where groups and individuals raise funds and collect in-kind food and personal-care items to support local food pantries. After the drive, supplies and income are directly given to the organization.

Some of the more popular food drives include scout groups handing out food item lists in front of grocery stores or schools and collecting canned food donations from students.

Many nonprofit organizations also directly hold a food drive within the community with the help of their volunteers to address the food issue. Here’s an example from one such charitable organization that partners with volunteers and corporations to collect donations for their food drive.

Start a Food Drive Fundraising Campaign

The 8 Crucial Steps to Run Food Drives in Your Community

If you’re interested in having a food drive, there are a few steps you can take to ensure it’s a success.

1. Choose an organization

The first step is to choose a local organization or food pantry to support. Since most communities have their own food pantry, it may be easy to select.

Still, instead of simply deciding where to drop off the items, you should connect with food pantries and form a partnership. Partnering with local food pantries allows fundraisers to collect vital community information and helps them know which items are most needed.

It can also allow you to raise funds in addition to in-kind products. Most nonprofits have their own online campaign pages . You can use this highly efficient tool to raise funds during your drive. For example, Donorbox lets you create and customize unlimited fundraising campaigns for free on its platform. Here is an example of a crowdfunding campaign created on Donorbox to raise money for Dunedin Cares Inc. Food Pantry .

2. Build your team

The second step is to build a team of fundraisers. Fundraising for your local food pantry may be your idea, but you need support to get it done.

Running a food drive can get complicated and time-consuming, so it’s best to form a group where you can delegate tasks. There are several people with a desire to help. You can reach out to them or build your team from available volunteers .

Connecting with other groups allows you to find new and experienced volunteers and spread the word about your food drive. You can also request them to raise funds for your food drive from their networks of people.

Here’s an example of a fundraiser leveraging Donorbox Peer-to-Peer to raise money for International Aid Charity’s peer-to-peer campaign. The donation form has been customized to include various donation amounts as per how many food boxes people want to donate.

Try Donorbox Peer-to-Peer

3. Make a fundraising plan and set a goal

Fundraising campaigns of any sort require a lot of planning . Food drives are a little different from other campaigns since most donations will be in-kind.

After reaching out to the food pantry, you’ll better understand their needs and have an easier time coming up with a plan and fundraising goal . Food pantries need more than food, so don’t forget to develop a plan to collect funds as well.

4. Choose one or more locations

Choosing a location is one of the trickier decisions you have to make. There are several options, and you can stick with one or combine them all.

Boy Scouts and other kids ‘ teams may camp outside your local grocery store and hand out lists of needed items. Shoppers purchase items on the list and hand them to the group on their way out. This is one of the simpler methods of holding a food drive.

Another easy way to collect food gifts is to use existing community groups, schools, and churches to collect items from students and their members. This type of food drive can last a day, week, month, or longer.

You can also take it a step further. Reach out via email and social media to friends, family, and other community members, and let them know when and where to leave their donations. If you have access to a large truck or several vehicles, you can choose one day to drive around and pick up items from their homes.

Another option is to hold a separate event . An event does not have to cost much money. You may have even better luck by piggybacking on another community event. Farmers’ markets are an excellent option. Contact the leaders of your local farmers’ market, ask for a donation, or purchase a tent space, and market your food drive beforehand.

5. Market your food drive

Marketing a food drive is more manageable now, thanks to social media. Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms are free and viewed by many.

Find one or more team members with a large online following and ask them to spread the word about the upcoming event. Since you’re fundraising for a food pantry, you can ask them to market your event on their website and social media pages.

You can create a social media account or two for your food drive, create a video and purchase ads, and live stream to get more online attention.

Don’t limit yourself to online marketing options. Newspaper ads, flyers, and word-of-mouth can still go a long way to get the word out.

When marketing your event, you don’t want only to give a date and time but also a reason for people to give. A big part of marketing your food drive will be educational. You must explain why people in your community need food and personal-care items.

Pro tip: Add social media sharing buttons to your fundraising page. It will make it easier for volunteers as well as visitors and donors to share it online with their networks. This can be the easiest way to spread it around your community. Check this example .

6. Monitor success

Monitoring your food drive’s success is a crucial step, especially if your drive takes place over days or weeks.

Check how your online ads are performing and how many people have interacted with your ads and clicked on them to go to your donation page. Monitor new donors and donations on your fundraising tool to check the performance of your online food drive campaign. Donorbox makes it easy – you can easily segment donors as per campaign and pull quick reports from the tool.

Make it a point to track the items you’re receiving every day at all your locations. Delegating a volunteer for this task at each location is the best way to go.

As your food drive collects more gifts, you can spread the word online about how well it’s going and what items you still need. Communicating with team members and community groups will ensure your food drive’s success.

7. Organize drop-off

At the end of your food drive, you must find a way to drop off what you’ve collected. This step should be part of your earlier planning.

Regardless of your food drive’s location, you’ll need reliable transportation to bring in-kind donations from point a to point b.

This is where team members, volunteers, and community groups can come in handy. Your local food pantry may also have an answer to this problem since they regularly collect large food donations.

8. Thank donors

Finally, it’s time to thank your donors . Yes, even canned food gifts deserve a thank you.

This may get tricky since most donors won’t leave their names and contact information. It is your responsibility to find a way to change that. You can try to offer benefits for leaving their email address. This can be a small gift or regular updates from the food pantry.

Another option you have to thank donors is to find a way to acknowledge larger groups, schools, and churches. You may do this by visiting these locations and sharing how their gifts made a difference.

For online donations, an effective fundraising platform should offer you automated donation receipts. With Donorbox, you have this option. You can also customize your receipts in advance so that your donors feel more valued for their donations.

4 Simple Ideas for a Successful Food Donation Drive

Several fundraisers are going on in your community every week, and the last thing you want is for your food drive to get lost in the crowd.

There are a few ways to gain more attention and ensure your drive’s success.

1. Start a crowdfunding campaign

Crowdfunding has become popular with nonprofits and individuals. Whether trying to raise thousands for your organization’s campaign or collecting a few hundred from friends instead of birthday presents, online crowdfunding makes both easier.

Food drives can jump on this trend, preferably for financial gifts. Online donation platforms make financial fundraising with crowdfunding easy. With smaller donations coming from people in your community, you can easily raise thousands of dollars for your food drive. Donorbox Crowdfunding lets you quickly create and customize a crowdfunding page for free. You’ll be able to add updates and send emails to your donors and campaign subscribers from the campaign page itself. There’s also a donor wall that helps acknowledge gifts and add social proof to your campaign. Plus, visitors can easily subscribe for updates, which helps convert them into donors for your campaign.

2. Pick a theme

One way to make your food drive fun is with a creative theme. Some themes can focus on the time of year. The theme is pretty obvious if you’re holding an event during Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Other theme ideas can focus on your mission and needs in your community. A few ideas for themes that highlight the need include “End Hunger in Hebron” or “Can Hunger in our Community.” Get creative and have a little fun when coming up with a theme.

For example, this food drive campaign here has an inspiring name that helps grab attention. They encourage people to become “Full Plate Partners” while helping them feel the impact instantly. A theme of this kind is sure to invite more donations.

3. Make it a competition

Another way to gain attention and collect more donations is with a little competitive spirit. Competition can be an excellent way to encourage participation if you’re holding a food drive in your school.

Create a challenge for different classrooms. Choose a prize for the most items collected and promote the challenge around the school and online.

People love getting attention for doing a good thing, especially younger kids. Food drives can be an excellent way to teach about charity and community involvement and to excite your student base.

4. Provide a fact sheet

Food pantries have access to local statistics that can share how hunger affects people in your town. You may end up surprised by how many and who of your neighbors are in the most danger of going without food.

The primary role of marketing your event is education. Providing a fact sheet with hunger statistics in the US and your community will help donors better understand the problem. This will inspire more people to come forward, volunteer, fundraise for you, and donate.

Final Thoughts

Hunger remains a serious issue for many families in every community. Running a food drive for your local food pantry can benefit hundreds of such people. Planning a food drive can be time-consuming, but you can run a successful event with the right team and tools.

Donorbox allows nonprofits and individuals to collect funds online. You can hold a food drive event, sell tickets, and accept donations with Donorbox Events. Alternatively, you can set up a recurring donation form and a fundraising page to simply accept donations online. Crowdfunding, Peer-to-Peer, etc. are other effective tools available. Learn about them and other powerful features on the website and get started for free!

Donorbox Premium is a success package that helps you take your fundraising to the next level. Our expert coaches and powerful tools will ensure your success for every campaign at personalized pricing – know more !

Read helpful fundraising guides and blogs and find free resources on our Nonprofit Blog . Subscribe to our newsletter to receive the best Donorbox resources in your inbox every month.

Kristine Ensor

Kristine Ensor is a freelance writer with over a decade of experience working with local and international nonprofits. As a nonprofit professional she has specialized in fundraising, marketing, event planning, volunteer management, and board development.

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• Future Students
• Parents and Families

URI Feinstein Center for a Hunger Free America

• A Hunger-Free Campus Initiative
• SNAP Outreach

Planning A Food Drive

The main goal of the Hunger Center is education. We believe it is very important for all those involved in the food drive process to be informed about the problem of hunger in their community, as well as the services provided by the location receiving the donations. In addition to food drive volunteers, it is also important that everyone donating items be given the opportunity to learn about hunger and how their donations will be used. We recommend that the organization running the drive compile a ”fact sheet” which includes information on hunger, along with some background information on both the hosting and receiving organizations. We would be happy to assist on all aspects of this process. Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any further questions or concerns.

1. Plan Ahead:

• Select a recipient (s) to receive your donations – this can be your local food bank and/or anti-hunger agency that provides food or meals to the needy.
• Contact the organization – they may be able to supply barrels and/or plastic/paper bags for food collections. Also, they can let you know what items are most needed at the time of your food drive.
• Determine how many collection barrels and/or bags you will need – grocery stores are often willing to donate bags for the collection.
• Create posters and flyers to generate awareness of hunger issues and food drives.
• Donation envelopes – for those wishing to make a monetary donation.
• Select a committee to organize the food drive and delegate responsibilities.

2. Establish Basics:

• Create a theme! Make it FUN! Themes often help generate excitement around a food drive and aid in the creation of promotional materials.
• Set beginning and end dates for the drive.
• Determine collection sites and who will deliver items to your recipient (s) at the end of the drive.
• Set a goal for how much food and/or money to collect (i.e. one million pennies, total weight of students = pounds of food to collection, certain number of bags of groceries).
• Communicate above information to all participants.

3. Promote The Food Drive:

• Create promotional materials that will help build awareness about hunger issues, your food drive, and encourage maximum participation.
• Hold contests for designing posters and flyers. Tap into the creativity available in your school.
• Include food drive information in take-home notices, school newsletters and calendars.
• Notify your local community centers, churches, libraries, and the media about your event.
• Distribute flyers and posters around your community.
• Use slogans that relate to your school and the food drive.
• Mark your progress with a thermometer or tally board-especially if the drive is longer than one day.
• Afterwards, announce the results of your collection efforts to your community.

4. Educate The Participants:

• Is it important that both donors and the organization’s members are educated about hunger problems and hosting a drive.
• Incorporate ideas from Hunger 101 curricula (see curriculum ideas).
• Arrange for a food bank representative to come to your school, take a field trip to their site, or schedule a volunteer day at a local anti-hunger agency.
• Take the on-line Hunger 101 tutorial (see curriculum ideas).

5. Show Your Appreciation:

• Recognize committee members, participants, sponsors and volunteers for their hard work. Host a pizza party or ice cream social in their honor! Have students create hand-made thank you notes.
• Check-in with the receiving organization(s) after the delivery of the donations. It is important to keep the lines of communication open even after the food drive has ended.

Food Bank Theme Ideas

• Oxfam Hunger Banquet-  host an Oxfam hunger banquet that dramatizes the inequitable distribution of food. For a Hunger Banquet Kit, go to http://actfast.oxfamamerica.org/index.php/events/banquet
• Empty Bowl Project-  students make ceramic bowls for a fund raising meal. How-to’s can be found at  http://www.emptybowls.net/
• Cans for Coins, Coins for Children- collect pocket change and donate money directly to your anti-hunger agency.
• Coin and Can Day-  drop off a can and a coin.
• Coin Wars-  plan a penny war between classrooms. Each class collects change in a container. Students throw dollar bills into the container of a another classroom in order to “cancel out” that class’ change. In other words, change in the container equals “positive” points, while bills equal “negative” points. The team with the most positive points at the end of the war wins!
• Canned Immunity Day- allow students to receive immunity for being late, forgetting homework, or being out of uniform if they bring in canned goods.
• Food Day- designate days of the week for specific foods, i.e. Macaroni Monday, Tuna Tuesday, Wheaties Wednesday, Turkey Thursday, Fruity Friday.
• Special Dress Day-  students “pay” with food to dress a special way.
• Let’s SAC Hunger or TGIF (Take Groceries  In Friday)- provide brown bags for students to take home and fill with food or encourage them to bring a brown bag lunch and donate the money they would have spent on a school lunch.
• Bag Hunger Auction- students collect auction items from home, “sell” admission tickets (cost of ticket = food item), hold the auction, and then the proceeds benefit local anti-hunger organizations.
• largest individual donation
• most protein
• most unusual food
• most original design for a food barrel
• raise our weight in food
• MEAT the Need- canned meat drive.
• Make Every BEAN COUNT-  canned or dried beans drive.
• Read to Feed- for every book a student reads, a can of food is donated.
• Food Drive Event-  have an event, party, or school production as part of the drive and charge “food admission”-the admission price=a certain number of food items.
• Fruity Fines- for one day or several, the school library allows students to “pay fines” with canned fruit or other food items.
• Let the Stars Come Out- use a local celebrity to help increase publicity and contributions.
• Fill ‘er Up, Stuff-a-Bus, Fill-a-Truck, Fill A Shopping Cart- fill the Principal’s office, gymnasium, truck, bus, or other designated area with food. Outline a map of your state on your gymnasium floor, athletic field, or school grounds and fill in area with food.
• Wash Away Hunger- a car wash where the price of wash is a food item.
• Hunger Walk, Run, Bike, or Dance-a-thon- have sponsors pledge food instead of money.

Specialty Boxes or Bags

• Baby Boxes: may contain formula, diapers, baby cereal, fruit juice, and baby food.
• BREAD (Bridges Reaching Elderly And Disabled) Boxes: could contain peanut butter, juice, pasta beans, cereal, canned food like tuna, vegetables, fruits and sauces, dry baking mixes, fruit cup packs, and pudding packs.
• Bags of Hope: may contain breakfast for a single mother and child, or lunch for 2 Chinese-American senior citizens, or dinner for a Latino family.
• Special Diets: such low-sodium or diabetic.
• Women: include iron rich and high-calcium foods.
• Kid Packs: may contain macaroni and cheese, alphabet soup, chicken noodle, instant oatmeal, peanut butter, pudding packs, applesauce, cereal grain bars, juice boxes, graham crackers, and fruit cup packs.
• New Beginnings Bags: bags filled with “new home supplies” such as oils, spices, baking products, pasta, sauces, and cleaning supplies relieve the cost and burden of setting up a new home to ensure the successful transition from homelessness to independence.
• Hot Dish Drive: contain the ingredients to make hot dishes.
• Winter’s Coming Drive: donations consist of “winter” items like stew, chili, and hot chocolate mix (don’t forget the marshmallows!).
• Bathroom Cabinet Bags: contain items commonly found in your bathroom: soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, toilet paper, shampoo or deodorant.

Holiday Themes and Event Ideas

• “Take the Mystery Out of Giving”
• “In the Spirit of Giving”
• “Dare to Care”
• “Treat” Your Neighbor Right
• Pumpkin Carving Contest

Thanksgiving

• “Give Thanks-Give Food”
• Turkey and Chicken Drive
• “Share the Bounty”
• “Hunger Doesn’t Take a Vacation”
• Summertime Drive
• Summer Lunch for Kids
• “Spread the Cheer This Time of Year”
• “Tis the Season for Giving”
• Kwanza Harvest Display
• Kosher Food Drive

Valentine’s Day

• “Giving from the Heart”
• Donate in Honor of your Valentine
• Easter Baskets for the Homeless and/or Children
• “Hunt for Solutions to Hunger”

Source : Redwood Empire Food Bank, Food & Funds Drive Kit www.refb.org

Food Drive Slogans

• “Take a byte out of Hunger.”
• “Hunger’s Heroes”
• “No matter how you say it, ‘Hunger Hurts'”
• “Providing better health by curing hunger.”
• “Hunger–If only words could fix it.”
• “The hungry are banking on you.”
• “Bean counters against hunger.”
• “Check Out Hunger.”
• “The hungry are counting on you.”
• “Hunger–go figure.”
• “The blueprint for feeding the hungry.”
• “Sleep over to end hunger.”
• “Let’s get together to end hunger.”
• “See justice done. Feed the hungry.”
• “Contract for a better tomorrow. End hunger today.”
• “Let’s clean up on hunger.”
• “Building a better community by fighting hunger today.”
• “Lend the hungry a helping hand.”
• “Go away…hunger”
• “Wipe Out Hunger”
• “Fighting a high rise problem–hunger.”
• “Design a Hunger Free Community”
• “The best closing of all: A closed door on hunger.”
• “A towering problem: Hunger.”
• “The Ultimate Savings Deposit: Feeding the Hungry.”
• “Hunger: An unwelcome guest.”
• “Making Hunger Disappear”
• “Turn the Tables on Hunger”
• “A City without Hunger is a City with Heart”
• “Let’s BAG Hunger”
• “Adios, Hunger!” (For a Cinco de Mayo Party)
• “Kids for Kids”
• “Cans for Children”
• “Super Kids Soup Collection”
• “It Makes Cents! (coin drive)
• “The Power of Change”
• “Spare Change Changes Lives”
• “Hunger Won’t Wait”
• “Raise Your Voice for the Hungry”
• “The Hungry: Give them the credit they deserve. Feed them.”

Curriculum Ideas

To increase awareness of hunger issues through the use of age appropriate coloring books, games, reading material, and service learning projects, visit any of the following websites:

Hunger 101 Curricula:

• Feeding America Site

Oxfam Hunger Banquet:

• Oxfam America Site

Pastore Hall Room 127 142 Flagg Road, Kingston, RI 02881 View Map [email protected]

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• Food Drive Short Essay

Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences in the space below or on an attached sheet (150 words or fewer).

In 2007 my school collected 30,000 pounds of food for local families in its 9th annual drive. Then it started floundering. As the drive had grown, extra processes were continuously piled on and, like Microsoft’s old operating system, overall organization and relative value were not reexamined. Nobody looked beyond small duties at the big picture.

I’ve personally raised over 50 cans for every word in this essay. I’ve also worked to fix the drive.

My sophomore year I improved ads and increased involvement, but it only helped nominally. So junior year I compiled five pages of changes I wanted to implement and gained clearance to restructure the drive. I’ve since streamlined our solicitation and collection procedures and facilitated communication among coordinators. This year improved tracking will be possible, the drop-off method clear, recruitment coordinated, and advertising unified. I found that the actual planning wasn’t difficult once I built the consensus and motivation to change.

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• 34,861 views (9 views per day)
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• Food Drive Overview
• How to Host a Food Drive
• Food Drive Ideas
• Food Drive Examples

Additional Resources

Thousands of nonprofits and individuals across the country work diligently to raise funds and collect supplies in the fight against hunger. When disaster strikes, the need for these resources is often amplified, yet organizations struggle to match the demand and meet the needs of their communities.

Specifically, that’s what we’ve seen as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. With schools closed, millions out of work, and a looming recession ahead, families are finding that they don’t know where their next meal will come from. To make matters worse, most food banks and pantries are being depleted of their resources faster than they can replenish them.

That’s where food drives come in! Community members all around the world have noticed an unmet need and are trying to do something about it. Let’s explore this idea further and see how we can do our part to help out.

What is a Food Drive?

A food drive is a specific type of fundraiser in which individuals and groups collect both in-kind and monetary donations for the purpose of stockpiling food items.

Then, these (typically non-perishable) food items are ultimately distributed to community members in need.

What Do Food Drives Do, and Why Are They Important?

Did you know that 1 in 8 Americans doesn’t know where their next meal will come from? And many of these individuals are ineligible for federal assistance. That’s why food drives are a great way to provide food-insecure individuals and families with the supplies they need to stay healthy.

Plus, in the midst of a global health and financial crisis, the number of food-insecure individuals has drastically risen— and current food banks and hunger relief organizations can’t keep up. Here are three key reasons to host a food drive and the significance behind each:

Keep Food Bank Shelves Stocked

There are thousands of food banks and pantries across the nation that are dedicated to feeding the hungry in their respective local areas.

However, many of these organizations rely on charitable donations from other community members to support their efforts and keep the shelves stocked.

Food drives help provide the necessary funding and supplies to keep the doors open. While there are certainly some generous donors who support hunger relief organizations on a regular basis, many of these nonprofits require certain community-wide boosts to get the giving going.

Raise Awareness About Food Insecurity

Many who are financially sound often wildly underestimate the degree to which hunger impacts the nation and even their own communities. Organizing a food drive is a great opportunity for raising awareness about the extent of the problem and the huge need for food and funding.

Plus, by partnering with a local food bank or pantry, you can simultaneously increase awareness for organizations that are already working hard in your communities.

After all, raising awareness is the first step in advocating for change and improvement ! Starting the conversation with others who are looking to make a difference is a great place to start.

Inspire Continued Support

Hosting a food drive doesn’t have to be a one-time event. Once you start raising awareness for a specific need in your community, there’s a good chance that many supporters will choose to stay involved year-round.

If you partner with a local food bank for your food drive, don’t let that relationship falter once your campaign wraps up. Instead, consider finding ways to support these organizations on a regular basis and encourage your communities to stick together!

Your food drive can essentially be used as a foundation from which life-long support, eager volunteerism , and hunger relief advocattion can grow.

The Purpose Behind Food Drives

The number of individuals in the U.S. living in food-insecure households in 2018

The percentage of food-insecure individuals who are likely ineligible for federal aid

The fraction of American children who do not know where their next meal will come from

The number of Americans who receive supplies from food pantries and banks each year

How Can I Host a Food Drive or Food Fundraiser?

Organizing a food drive might seem like an overwhelming task, but it can actually be quite simple. Let’s walk through the main steps involved in hosting one, and you’ll be ready to get started in no time.

Step 1: Partner with a Local Organization

The first step is to find a local organization that’s already working to fight hunger in your community. A great resource for this is Feeding America , which is a  network of more than 200 food banks and thousands of food pantries across the country.

After locating an organization, be sure to communicate with their team to determine what sort of resources are most valuable to them. Most often, it’s actually not food donations. Money is much more useful because food banks are able to buy the food they know they can distribute to families at far below retail value.

Plus, with social distancing in place for the foreseeable future, it is often safer for food banks to collect money and buy their food from one consistent location than to receive (and have to clean and disinfect)  donations from a variety of sources.

Step 2: Choose Your Team

Then, it’s important to find a team of dedicated volunteers to work with you as you plan and organize your food drive. If you’re already a part of a nonprofit organization, your team will likely be composed of your nonprofit volunteers and staff members. If you’re working as an individual looking to host a food drive, be sure to gather a few friends and community members to help out.

Step 3: Start a Crowdfunding Campaign

Because monetary donations are so much more valuable for hunger-relief organizations, sometimes the most effective type of food drive doesn’t collect food at all! Instead, hosting a crowdfunding campaign allows you to collect donations from individuals who want to support your cause— plus, it expands your reach by allowing you to collect money from all over the world.

With the right online crowdfunding software , your team can quickly and easily raise the money needed to fund your selected food bank and get food out to those in need.

Step 4: Start Reaching Out

The next (and possibly most important) step is to get the word out about your food drive fundraiser. After all, no one can participate if they never hear about the fundraiser.

Many people want to volunteer and give back but are finding their usual channels unavailable due to social distancing. Setting up a virtual campaign and spreading the word about ways to give back online helps you inspire other people to contribute in new ways.

One of the greatest benefits of hosting a virtual food drive through a crowdfunding campaign is freedom from physical and geographical barriers. That means it’s crucial that you spread the word far and wide to ensure the greatest turnout!

Consider leveraging your social media networks, your organization’s website , email contacts, and personal outreach to friends and family to reach as many donors as possible. A successful digital strategy allows you to secure more support and therefore help more people.

Step 5: Organize Drop-Off

Even if your food drive is going to be mostly virtual, you’ll still want to provide instructions and space required to facilitate the drop-off of food items.

Accepting donations of food products is great for individuals who are looking to get involved but may not have the financial capacity to give right now. This way, individuals and families could use the opportunity to donate any non-perishable food items they already have in the house!

Be sure to choose a convenient time and location for individuals to make the drop-off. If it’s too far out of the way or at an inopportune time, even willing donors are less likely to follow through. For example, consider leaving a box open for donations out at a community center for drop-off at any time over the course of an entire week.

And if you’re looking for a way to schedule volunteer shifts, show drop off locations, and collect monetary donations all in one place, you’re in luck. Thanks to Fundly’s integration with SignUpGenius , you can create sign-up forms for volunteers and/or food recipients, and create a link to your crowdfunding campaign right within the sign-up form.

Food Drive Ideas for Your Community

An effective food drive can utilize successful fundraising engagement strategies to get your community involved as well. Here are some of our top food drive fundraising ideas to have fun while supporting a good cause.

Grocery Store Scavenger Hunt

A grocery store scavenger hunt is a great way to make shopping for others fun . Ramp up excitement by providing shopping lists of the most-wanted foods suggested by your partnering food bank. Be sure to post this list on your website and social media channels to get the word out!

Then decide how to score points. You may ask for items from various categories or score based on certain health factors like protein levels.

Be sure to offer a small prize for the winner ( like a custom t-shirt ) to motivate shoppers and encourage some healthy competition.

Canned Pledge Fundraiser

You’ve likely heard of a walk-a-thon (or even a run- or dance-a-thon) fundraiser. For example, a child may gather a pledge of $2 per lap walked in a fundraising event. If the child walks 10 laps, the donor makes a $20 donation to the organization hosting the event.

This class fundraiser can be easily adapted to be a food drive fundraiser! Instead of cash donations, simply ask for pledges in the form of canned food items. So for every lap walked, a donor gives a set number of cans.

Or, you can always collect monetary donations and provide your food bank partner with a cash gift!

Holiday-Themed Drive

This is a great food drive to hold in the fall months approaching Thanksgiving and Christmas. Not only do people traditionally feel more charitable during the holiday giving season, but it also opens the doors to organize exciting fundraisers like these!

Make up a list of holiday-themed non-perishable food items that donors can collect and purchase for this food drive fundraiser. For example, encourage shoppers to pick up canned cranberry sauce, boxed stuffing, instant potatoes, and more. It’s a great way to share the holiday spirit with families who may not be able to celebrate otherwise.

Favorite Meal of the Day

Allow community members to vote for their favorite meal of the day by donating non-perishable food associated with each meal! To get started, set up three large boxes in a convenient location. Then, encourage individuals to take part in your food drive by placing cans in one of three boxes— breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Leave the boxes out for a set amount of time and watch as your community “votes” for their favorite meal For the best results, be sure to provide suggested items for each meal. For example, cereal or oatmeal for breakfast, peanut butter and jelly for lunch, or pasta and canned vegetables for dinner!

Battle of the Sexes

Similar to the Best Meal of the Day fundraiser, this food drive involves setting up boxes in a well-trafficked area. Yet this time, you’ll label each box with “male” or “female.” Get the word out and encourage people of all genders to stop by and vote by dropping food items in one of the two boxes to find out who the superior sex is— once and for all.

After a set period of time, measure the results (by volume, weight, number of products, or another metric of choice) and determine the winner.

Then, consider hosting some sort of event to reveal the champion! You might do this via live streaming tools to allow more participants to tune in.

Soup-er Bowl Party

Canned soup is a very valuable food item in hunger-relief organizations, thanks to its popularity and nutritional value. Consider hosting a soup-themed fundraiser to bring in as much as possible! Although this is a great idea year-round, it works best in the weeks leading up to the NFL’s Super Bowl.

For example, you can start planning a Super Bowl watch party for the day of the big game (early February of each year). Be sure that community members are aware of and excited about your fundraising event by getting the word out early. Then, accept cans of soup (or other non-perishable food products) as an admission fee to the party!

Virtual Food Drive

Although there are definitely perks to hosting a dedicated in-kind donation food drive, it’s important to remember that monetary donations to hunger relief organizations can be substantially more effective. That’s why holding a virtual food drive fundraiser might be your best bet!

Because food banks and pantries can purchase food supplies in bulk at much below retail costs , oftentimes cash donations are the preferred choice. That way, your efforts and donations can go further and make a larger impact on your community.

Although many types of online fundraising campaigns can work for your online food drive, crowdfunding is likely the most effective strategy. Starting an online crowdfunding campaign allows you to collect small and mid-size donations from donors all over the world (rather than be limited by a geographical distance for physical food donations).

Plus, an online food drive is convenient for organizers and donors alike⁠— especially in the midst of a pandemic. No need to worry about germs and proper social distancing thanks to digitally processed payments and online tools!

Examples of Great Food Drives and Fundraisers

Sometimes the easiest way to get inspired is by taking a look at what those working toward similar goals are doing. Here are two examples of ways that others are raising money quickly and safely for food banks in their area!

Feeding Northern Michigan

Feeding Northern Michigan is a crowdfunding campaign that’s raising money to assist Michigan food pantries in fulfilling the increasing demands for food amid the COVID-19 crisis. They’ve already surpassed their goal of $10,000 by over 33%, with several days left in the campaign and fundraising still going strong.

What’s great about this food drive fundraiser is that it makes use of suggested donation amounts when a user goes to make a donation. For $21, an individual can feed a family of 4 for a week, or $100 provides supplies necessary for a month!

The Open Door’s Crisis Response Campaign

The Open Door is a Minnesota-based nonprofit working to fight hunger in a trying economic time. As a result of COVID-19, the organization requires increased assistance to effectively provide for their community.

So far, this campaign has raised $186,000 of its $200,000 goal thanks to nearly 500 generous donors. According to Sarah O’Brien, The Open Door’s development and communications manager, reaching their fundraising goal would ensure that they could continue to support 7,000 individuals each month.

Learn how Fundly can help you raise money for your food drive!

Crowdfunding 101: Raising Money and Awareness Online

First time crowdfunding and not sure where to get started? Lucky for you, crowdfunding is quite simple once you get the hang of it!

We’ve put together this comprehensive guide to help you better understand the process as well as the tools you’ll need to succeed.

131 Fundraising Ideas for Nonprofits and Individuals

Running the same fundraisers over and over can quickly become tiresome— both for your team and even the most dedicated supporters.

Instead, check out some of our favorite ideas for unique and engaging fundraising campaigns that will truly excite your donors.

Peer-to-Peer Fundraising: A Guide For Nonprofits

Are you looking to expand your network of donors, leverage current support, and raise money for your cause? Try hosting a peer-to-peer fundraiser.

In a peer-to-peer campaign, dedicated volunteers take on the role of a fundraiser on your behalf and secure funds from family and friends!

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Persuasive Essay on Organic Food

How it works

So, these days, with the food industry being all about mass production and loads of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, people are talking a lot about organic food. Organic food, which is grown without synthetic chemicals or GMOs, and focuses on being eco-friendly, is seen as a great alternative to regular food. It’s got a bunch of benefits, like being healthier, better for the environment, and even more ethical, making it a top choice for folks who care about these things.

First off, you can’t really ignore how healthy organic food is. Lots of studies show that it’s got more of the good stuff like vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants compared to regular food. For example, organic fruits and veggies often pack more nutrients. These are super important for keeping your immune system strong, fighting off sickness, and just feeling good overall. Plus, organic food doesn’t have those nasty chemicals and pesticides you find in non-organic farming. These chemicals have been linked to pretty scary health problems like cancer and nerve issues. So, by eating organic, you dodge a lot of these risks and can live a healthier life.

On top of the health perks, organic farming is way better for the planet. Regular farming uses a lot of synthetic stuff that’s bad for the environment. These chemicals can mess up the soil and water, hurt animals, and reduce biodiversity. But organic farming uses natural fertilizers and crop rotation, which keeps the soil healthy, cuts down on pollution, and helps biodiversity. When you buy organic, you’re supporting a more sustainable and eco-friendly food system. Also, organic farms often use renewable energy and less fossil fuels, which is another win for the environment.

And then there’s the ethical side of things. Organic farming usually means fair treatment and pay for workers, which is a big deal. In contrast, some regular farms expose workers to harmful chemicals and bad working conditions. Plus, organic farming supports small, local farms, which helps local economies and builds community. When you buy organic, you’re making a positive difference in the lives of farmers and their communities. Also, organic farming cares about animal welfare, making sure animals have good living conditions and natural diets, unlike the harsh conditions in industrial farming.

All in all, the benefits of organic food go way beyond just personal preference. It’s about health, the environment, and ethics. Organic food is healthier because it’s more nutritious and free of harmful chemicals. It’s better for the planet due to sustainable farming practices. And it’s more ethical because it supports fair labor, local economies, and humane animal treatment. By choosing organic, you’re helping to create a healthier, more sustainable, and ethical food system. So, it’s clear that supporting organic food is crucial. It’s not just a fad; it’s a necessary step towards a better future for everyone.

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We Eat Together

PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEO

April 30, 2015

3 Photo Essay Tips For Food Bloggers And Our Hunt For The World’s Best Honey

THE SWEETEST STORY TOLD

(photo essay by heather & skyler burt).

Not too long ago Heather and I finished up a photo essay we’ve been working on. With a weekend spent shooting here and there, it took us a few months to complete.

Our subject was only reachable by 4×4 trucks, in a remote mountainous area of The Sultanate of Oman above the wadi Sahtain.

We were shooting the natural honey farmers of the region and their traditional beekeeping lifestyle.

Natural and sustainable farming is a subject dear to both of us and we’ve been wanting to document it for a very long time. We both hope to do a much larger story that encompasses a variety of locally grown foods to show just how much can come from a desert.

Honey was a great subject to start with, as our daughter Ciela was in heaven on the farms. Milking the swarms of baby goats each morning and having all the honey she could eat buy lunch.

I can now release the essay on the blog and I thought, while I was sharing our story, I might give a few photo essay tips for food bloggers.

1. STEAL THESE MOVES FROM THE TOP PUBLICATIONS

Crack open your favorite food magazine and I’m almost certain you’ll find one of these types of the photo essay below. These formats are not only simple, but almost endless wells to pull from. With monthly editions to crank out, photographers and writers love these types of stories because they’re usually quick to research and easy to produce.

• The Raw Ingredient Story

There is no boring ingredient! Where does your salt come from? Your pepper? Those walnuts? Think about it.

Our story of the natural honey farms is really an ingredient type of story. Holding a bottle of Omani honey, we said, “Hmm thats interesting.” Then we reverse engineer the entire idea from the market to where it was sourced.

Actually, our photo essay started at one of the most delicious chocolatiers in Muscat, Salma's Chocolates. Salma's Chocolates, specialize in incorporating indigenous ingredients into their truffles. One of which, is Omani honey. Our interest grew and we chased the golden sweet from the chocolate to the beekeepers.

Ingredient photo essays can be fun and really interesting. We were given an opportunity to communicate the depth of an everyday item we take for granted. Behind your favorite ingredient there is a person or place that makes it possible for you to enjoy. If you do a bit of research, fantastic stories will emerge.

• The Local Interests Story

Lots of action happens locally, you don’t have to travel far to get a simple photo essay. Restaurants, bars, markets and food festivals should be the photo essay playground for food bloggers. Go out and meet people, communicate and really listen to their story.

This photo essay from Sara Tuck really gives her audience a sense of what it's like to visit the Stunning Tasmania's Salamanca Markets . The food blogger Katie Quinn Davis and Aran of Cannelle et Vanille show us some great local interest photo essays that food bloggers can do.

• The City Guide Photo Essay

A lot of work, but well worth the effort, a city guide can really give your reader a sense of the food, people and culture closest to you. Every city’s food culture is different. City guides can range from a bird’s eye view of your local food scene to a detailed walk-through, hosted by a local with authority. Check out the epic city guides that the What Should I Eat For Breakfast Today blogger Marta Greber is doing.

The city guide photo essay can be a roundup of the local interests and ingredients stories as well. From the top places to eat all the way to where they get the magical ingredients that make their dishes sing.

This year I created a city guide for Saison Küche (Seasonal Kitchen) a Swiss culinary magazine. It was a story covering the food tradition, good eats, and gastro talent through the recommendations of a local foodie authority in Galle, Sri Lanka. I think it’s pretty cool, but maybe that’s a little bias.

2. HOW TO BE A BADASS STORYTELLER EVEN IF YOU’VE NEVER DONE IT BEFORE

The best way to be badass, is to get things done. And the best way to get a photo essay done, is to get organized. A shot list will help you to stay organized, and get all of those ideas on paper. So you know what you have accomplished and how far you need to go. Here is our typical shot list we use to approach a photo essay. We sketch the below outline, then fill in the blanks with possible photos we think we might make.

This photo would work great as a lead to our story. It’s an anxious scene, with the thousands of bees, yet the beekeepers smile is inviting, this juxtaposition gives the viewer the feeling of wanting to know more.

The lead in a photo essay is the hook. It draws the viewer in, peeking their curiosity to know more. The image could be a landscape scene or a portrait, but overall it should introduce the photo essay. Sometimes you know what your lead will be beforehand and sometimes it comes to you after you’re back and editing.

• Establishing Shot

The establishing shot gives the photo essay an immediate “sense of place.” It clearly shows where the story takes place, the environment, the mood of the location, the weather or whatever else is important for the viewer to know about the location.

You can see in the establishing shot above, a wide shot showing the barren mountainous landscape where the beekeepers harvest the honey. Far away from society, so no other impurities are introduced into their production.

• Medium Shot

Zooming in a bit on the location, is the next level of the photo essay, the medium shot. In our story, this is where we introduce the farm to the viewer. Still we can see some of the environment, the mountains, but it’s more focused on the subject. A surprise of green not seen before in the dry establishing shot.

• Engaged Portrait

As you can see this is the first look at our subjects, the main actors in the story, up close and personally engaging the viewer. It’s used as a reference for the viewer as they look through the following images, to keep in their mind who this photo essay is about.

 The subjects should be looking into the camera, showing their unique characters and maybe even a bit of their environments.

• Candid Portraits

Unlike the engaged portrait, the candids, are portraits of your subject which are un-staged. You’ll want to make a lot of these, they will play really nicely when you go to make diptychs with your detail shots later. This is also the point where you’ll want to add a few more characters to your photo essay.

 As you can see, our beekeeper had a few helping hands around the farm. Passing down the skills and the natural honey harvesting tradition to others was important to our story, so it was crucial to include these characters as well.

• Action Shots

Just like they sound, action shots are the bulk of what happens in your photo essay. This is where we show our viewer the process of the harvest. The work, hardship and joy involved in putting this sweet ingredient on the shelves of the community. If your subject is not comfortable with your presence, it might take a few visits to get natural action shots.

Every photo essay has a million details that surround the idea. Finding these will add depth and color to your story. We created details that we hoped would place the viewer, with us, inside the environment of our story. Focus on the small to build a bigger story.

• The Clincher

This is the end of your photo essay. Like the lead photo, the clincher should sum up the entire idea, but at the same time try to add resolve to the story. This clincher here might say to the viewer that the future and secrets of Oman’s natural honey is in the hands of the next generation. However you want to end your photo essay, it needs to end with strength. A solid image for the viewer to walk away with.

3. PUBLISHING PHOTO ESSAY THAT ARE STELLER

Yes, I know it’s cheesy, that last sub-head was a play on the Steller App , but once you have your story finished you have to show it to the world, right? The Steller App is a cool new (at least to us) way of showing off your photo essay, just how it should be. In a clickable book, that can be posted straight on your blog! Try ours out.

The Steller App has a Instagram-like feel to it, with the ability for your viewers to add comments and share it with their friends. And personally, I’m in love with seeing how people are using it. I even see some authors adding videos of their adventures.

I think it’s going to be an amazing addition to the toolbox of food bloggers, who are wanting an unique way to share their recipes with their fans.

Do you have any Steller Stories? Post a link to it in the comment section, I’d love to see them!

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15 Traditional Russian Foods You Must Try

 Quynh Anh Nguyen/Getty Images

Russia may not be the first to come to mind when you think of a food destination, but the country has plenty of delicious traditional dishes to try. Visitors to Russia are often surprised at the variety and flavors of Russian cuisine, which is influenced by Russia's connection to Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The most classic Russian recipes are made of veggies and wheat, such as soups, porridges, and stuffed dough.

Borscht is a beet soup that originated in Ukraine and was quickly adopted as a Russian specialty. Beets may seem like a strange base for soup to many Westerners, but there are plenty of reasons that this hearty soup is one of Russia’s most famous dishes. It is full of meat and sautéed vegetables, including cabbage, carrots, onions, and potatoes. It can be served hot or cold and is best served with a dollop of fresh sour cream on top.

Shchi is a typical cabbage soup made from either fresh or fermented cabbage. While different recipes call for various ingredients, shchi often contains potatoes, carrots, onions, and possibly some meat such as chicken. The cabbage can also be replaced with sauerkraut, called sour shchi.

Solyanka is a thick soup that is plentiful enough to be a meal in itself. This soup is made with various types of meat, including sausage, bacon, ham, and beef, as well as vegetables such as cabbage, carrots, onions, and potatoes. Chopped pickles and the traditional lemon slice garnish play an essential role in giving this recipe its sour flavor. It is often also made with fish and pickled cucumbers.

If you like seafood, try ukha, a fish soup with a clear broth. Many different kinds of fish can be used to make this soup, including bream, wels catfish, northern pike, and ruffe. The remaining ingredients are not unlike what you might find in a traditional chicken soup—think root vegetables, parsley, leeks, and dill.

You may have already heard of pirozhki (also known as piroshki or pyrizhky). These little baked or fried puff pastries are packed with potatoes, meat, cabbage, or cheese. The stuffed pockets are popular all around Russia and Ukraine.

Pelmeni is considered the national dish of Russia. They are pastry dumplings are typically filled with minced meat and wrapped in a thin, pasta-like dough. They can be served alone, slathered in butter and topped with sour cream, or in a soup broth. A favorite in Russia and Eastern Europe!

Blini is a wheat pancake rolled with various fillings: jam, cheese, sour cream, caviar, onions, or even chocolate syrup. It is Russia's equivalent of a crepe. At any restaurant where you aren't sure of any of the other dishes, blini are always a safe bet. Blini are such an important part of Russian cuisine that a festival called Maslenitsa celebrates the beginning of spring with them.

Russian kebabs are called shashlyk or shashlik. Like any kebab, they consist of cubed meat and veggies grilled on skewers. They have roots in the Caucasian Mountains, where 19th-century tribe members would prepare them over an open flame.

Beef Stroganoff

Beef stroganoff consists of sauteed beef strips served in a creamy sauce with mushrooms or tomatoes, often served with rice, noodles, or potatoes. This recipe has a long history, and many variations for its preparation exist, but its roots are in mid-19th-century Russia.

Caviar, or ikra, is really something to get worked up about in Russia. Briny and sharp, it is often served on dark, crusty bread or with blini, which are like pancakes or crepes. Caviar on buttered bread is a popular zakuska.

You can expect to find sour cream or smetana, accompanying almost any Russian traditional food—with crepes, soups, and even sometimes in dessert. This sour cream is fresh and melts into any warm dish, adding to its distinctive flavor. (You will likely often see it in beef stroganoff.)

Russia is well-known for vodka, so you can expect to find many varieties throughout the country, such as Russian Standard Gold, Moskovskaya Osobaya, Kauffman, and Beluga Noble. Russian beverage menus can also include tea, mineral water, beer, and soda.

Kvass is a refreshing fermented beverage with slight carbonation. Although it has a very slight alcohol content, it is not considered an alcoholic beverage. It is made from black or regular rye bread or dough and can be flavored with a variety of different things, ranging from honey to berries to herbs.

Russians love ice cream, called morozhenoe. It is common to find it on many restaurant menus with various toppings​ , like fruit, nuts, or chocolate. Unlike more traditional Western ice cream, morozhenoe is much creamier, thanks to the fresh milk and a higher ice ratio to dairy.

Paskha is a festive dessert that is commonly made around Easter in Eastern Orthodox countries. This sweetened cheesecake dessert is decorated with Christian symbols as a part of the holiday feast.

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Read the Affidavit

The affidavit provides additional details about the night of the University of Idaho killings. It notes that DNA and surveillance video led them to the 28-year-old accused of stabbing four University of Idaho students. Read more ›

A PDF version of this document with embedded text is available at the link below:

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Exhibit A Statement of Brett Payne The below information is provided by Brett Payne, who is a duly appointed, qualified and acting peace officer within the County of Latah, State of Idaho. Brett Payne is employed by Moscow Police Department in the official capacity or position of Corporal (CPL) and has been a trained and qualified peace officer for approximately four (4) years. CPL Payne is being assisted by members of the Idaho State Police and agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. On November 13, 2022, at approximately 4:00 p.m., Moscow Police Department (MPD) Sergeant Blaker and I responded to 1122 King Road, Moscow, Idaho, hereafter the "King Road Residence," to assist with scene security and processing of a crime scene associated with four homicides. Upon our arrival, the Idaho State Police (ISP) Forensic Team was on scene and was preparing to begin processing the scene. MPD Officer (OFC) Smith, one of the initial responding officers to the incident, advised he would walk me through the scene. OFC Smith and I entered the King Road Residence through the bottom floor door on the north side of the building. OFC Smith and I then walked upstairs to the second floor. OFC Smith directed me down the hallway to the west bedroom on the second floor, which I later learned (through Xana's driver's license and other personal belongings found in the room) was Xana Kernodle's, hereafter "Kernodle" room. Just before this room there was a bathroom door on the south wall of the hallway. As I approached the room, I could see a body, later identified as Kernodle's, laying on the floor. Kernodle was deceased with wounds which appeared to have been caused by an edged weapon. Also in the room was a male, later identified as Ethan Chapin, hereafter, "Chapin". Chapin was also deceased with wounds later determined (Autopsy Report provided by Spokane REDACTED 1 SENO, CK29-22-2805 CLRK OF DIST CT. LATAH DEC 25 2022 PK2:52

County Medical Examiner injuries." dated December 15, 2022) to be caused by "sharp-force I then followed OFC Smith upstairs to the third floor of the residence. The third floor consisted of two bedrooms and one bathroom. The bedroom on the west side of the floor was later determined to be Kaylee Goncalves, hereafter "Goncalves," room. I later learned (from review of Officer Nunes' body camera) there was a dog in the room when Moscow Police Officers initially responded. The dog belonged to Goncalves and her ex-boyfriend Jack Ducoeur. I found out from my interview with Jack Ducouer on November 13, 2022 that he and Goncalves shared the dog. OFC Smith then pointed out a small bathroom on the east side of the third floor. This bathroom shared a wall with Madison Mogen's, hereafter "Mogen" bedroom which was situated on the southeast corner of the third floor. As I entered this bedroom, I could see two females in the single bed in the room. Both Goncalves and Mogen were deceased with visible stab wounds. I also later noticed what appeared to be a tan leather knife sheath laying on the bed next to Mogen's right side (when viewed from the door). The sheath was later processed and had "Ka-Bar" "USMC" and the United States Marine Corps eagle globe and anchor insignia stamped on the outside of it. The Idaho State Lab later located a single source of male DNA (Suspect Profile) left on the button snap of the knife sheath. As part of the investigation, numerous interviews were conducted by Moscow Police Department Officers, Idaho State Police Detectives, and FBI Agents. Two of the interviews included B.F., and D.M. Both B.F. and D.M. were inside the King Road Residence at the time of the homicides and were roommates to the victims. B.F.'s bedroom was located on the east side of the first floor of the King Road Residence. 2

Based on numerous interviews conducted by MPD Officers, ISP Detectives, and FBI Agents as well as my review of evidence, I have learned the following: On the evening of November 12, 2022, Chapin and Kernodle are seen by B.F. at the Sigma Chi house on the University of Idaho campus at 735 Nez Perce Drive from approximately 9:00 p.m. on November 12 to 1:45 a.m. on November 13. B.F. also estimated that at approximately, 1:45 a.m. Chapin and Kernodle returned to the King Road Residence. B.F. also stated that Chapin did not live in the King Road Residence but was a guest of Kernodle. Goncalves and Mogen were at a local bar, the Corner Club at 202 N. Main Street, in Moscow. Goncalves and Mogen can be seen on video footage provided by the Corner Club between 10:00 p.m. on November 12 and 1:30 a.m. on November 13th. At approximately 1:30 a.m. Goncalves and Mogen can be seen on video at a local food vendor called the "Grub Truck" at 318 S. Main Street in downtown Moscow. The Grub Truck live streams video from their food truck on the streaming platform Twitch which is available for public viewing on their website. This video was captured by law enforcement. A private party reported that he provided a ride to Goncalves and Mogen at approximately 1:56 a.m. from downtown Moscow (in front of the Grub Truck) to the King Road Residence. D.M. and B.F. both made statements during interviews that indicated the occupants of the King Road Residence were at home by 2:00 a.m. and asleep or at least in their rooms by approximately 4:00 a.m. This is with the exception of Kernodle, who received a DoorDash order at the residence at approximately 4:00 a.m. (law enforcement identified the DoorDash delivery driver who reported this information). 3

D.M. stated she originally went to sleep in her bedroom on the southeast side of the second floor. D.M. stated she was awoken at approximately 4:00 a.m. by what she stated sounded like Goncalves playing with her dog in one of the upstairs bedrooms, which were located on the third floor. A short time later, D.M. said she heard who she thought was Goncalves say something to the effect of "there's someone here." A review of records obtained from a forensic download of Kernodle's phone showed this could also have been Kernodle as her cellular phone indicated she was likely awake and using the TikTok app at approximately 4:12 a.m. D.M. stated she looked out of her bedroom but did not see anything when she heard the comment about someone being in the house. D.M. stated she opened her door a second time when she heard what she thought was crying coming from Kernodle's room. D.M. then said she heard a male voice say something to the effect of "it's ok, I'm going to help you." At approximately 4:17 a.m., a security camera located at 1112 King Road, a residence immediately to the northwest of 1122 King Road, picked up distorted audio of what sounded like voices or a whimper followed by a loud thud. A dog can also be heard barking numerous times starting at 4:17 a.m. The security camera is less than fifty feet from the west wall of Kernodle's bedroom. D.M. stated she opened her door for the third time after she heard the crying and saw a figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person's mouth and nose walking towards her. D.M. described the figure as 5'10" or taller, male, not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows. The male walked past D.M. as she stood in a "frozen shock phase." The male walked towards the back sliding glass door. D.M. locked herself in her 4

room after seeing the male. D.M. did not state that she recognized the male. This leads investigators to believe that the murderer left the scene. The combination of D.M.'s statements to law enforcement, reviews of forensic downloads of records from B.F. and D.M.'s phone, and video of a suspect video as described below leads investigators to believe the homicides occurred between 4:00 a.m. and 4:25 a.m. During the processing of the crime scene, investigators found a latent shoe print. This was located during the second processing of the crime scene by the ISP Forensic Team by first using a presumptive blood test and then Amino Black, a protein stain that detects the presence of cellular material. The detected shoe print showed a diamond-shaped pattern (similar to the pattern of a Vans type shoe sole) just outside the door of D.M.'s bedroom (located on second floor). This is consistent with D.M.'s statement regarding the suspect's path of travel. As part of the investigation, an extensive search, commonly referred to in law enforcement as a "video canvass," was conducted in the area of the King Road Residence. This video canvass was to obtain any footage from the early morning hours of November 13, 2022, in the area of the King Road Residence and surrounding neighborhoods in an effort to locate the suspect(s) or suspect vehicle(s) traveling to or leaving from the King Road Residence. This video canvass resulted in the collection of numerous surveillance videos in the area from both residential and business addresses. I have reviewed numerous videos that were collected and have had conversations with the other MPD Officers, ISP Detectives, and FBI Agents that are similarly reviewing footage that was obtained. A review of camera footage indicated that a white sedan, hereafter "Suspect Vehicle 1", was observed traveling westbound in the 700 block of Indian Hills Drive in Moscow at 5

approximately 3:26 a.m and westbound on Styner Avenue at Idaho State Highway 95 in Moscow at approximately 3:28 a.m. On this video, it appeared Suspect Vehicle 1 was not displaying a front license plate. A review of footage from multiple videos obtained from the King Road Neighborhood showed multiple sightings of Suspect Vehicle 1 starting at 3:29 a.m. and ending at 4:20 a.m. These sightings show Suspect Vehicle 1 makes an initial three passes by the 1122 King Road residence and then leave via Walenta Drive. Based off of my experience as a Patrol Officer this is a residential neighborhood with a very limited number of vehicles that travel in the area during the early morning hours. Upon review of the video there are only a few cars that enter and exit this area during this time frame. Suspect Vehicle 1 can be seen entering the area a fourth time a approximately 4:04 a.m. It can be seen driving eastbound on King Road, stopping and turning around in front of 500 Queen Road # 52 and then driving back westbound on King Road. When Suspect Vehicle 1 is in front of the King Road Residence, it appeared to unsuccessfully attempt to park or turn around in the road. The vehicle then continued to the intersection of Queen Road and King Road where it can be seen completing a three-point turn and then driving eastbound again down Queen Road. Suspect Vehicle 1 is next seen departing the area of the King Road Residence at approximately 4:20 a.m. at a high rate of speed. Suspect Vehicle 1 is next observed traveling southbound on Walenta Drive. Based on my knowledge of the area and review of camera footage in the neighborhood that does not show Suspect Vehicle 1 during that timeframe, I believe that Suspect Vehicle 1 likely exited the neighborhood at Palouse River Drive and Conestoga Drive. Palouse River Drive is at the southern edge of Moscow and proceeds into Whitman County, Washington. Eventually the road leads to Pullman, Washington. Pullman Washington is 6

approximately 10 miles from Moscow, Idaho. Both Pullman and Moscow are small college towns and people commonly travel back and forth between them. Law enforcement officers provided video footage of Suspect Vehicle to forensic examiners with the Federal Bureau of Investigation that regularly utilize surveillance footage to identify the year, make, and model of an unknown vehicle that is observed by one or more cameras during the commission of a criminal offense. The Forensic Examiner has approximately 35 years law enforcement experience with twelve years at the FBI. His specific training includes identifying unique characteristics of vehicles, and he uses a database that gives visual clues of vehicles across states to identify differences between vehicles. After reviewing the numerous observations of Suspect Vehicle 1, the forensic examiner initially believed that Suspect Vehicle 1 was a 2011-2013 Hyundai Elantra. Upon further review, he indicated it could also be a 2011-2016 Hyundai Elantra. As a result, investigators have been reviewing information on persons in possession of a vehicle that is a 2011-2016 white Hyundai Elantra. Investigators were given access to video footage on the Washington State University (WSU) campus located in Pullman, WA. A review of that video indicated that at approximately 2:44 a.m. on November 13, 2022, a white sedan, which was consistent with the description of the White Elantra known as Suspect Vehicle 1, was observed on WSU surveillance cameras travelling north on southeast Nevada Street at northeast Stadium Way. At approximately 2:53 a.m., a white sedan, which is consistent with the description of the White Elantra known as Suspect Vehicle 1, was observed traveling southeast on Nevada Street in Pullman, WA towards SR 270. SR 270 connects Pullman, Washington to Moscow, Idaho. This camera footage from 7

Pullman, WA was provided to the same FBI Forensic Examiner. The Forensic Examiner identified the vehicle observed in Pullman, WA as being a 2014-2016 Hyundai Elantra. At approximately 5:25 a.m., a white sedan, which was consistent with the description of Suspect Vehicle 1, was observed on five cameras in Pullman, WA and on WSU Campus cameras. The first camera that recorded the white sedan was located at 1300 Johnson Road in Pullman. The white sedan was observed traveling northbound on Johnson Road. Johnson Road leads directly back to West Palouse River Drive in Moscow which intersects with Conestoga Drive. The white sedan was then observed turning north on Bishop Boulevard and northwest on SR 270. At approximately 5:27 a.m., the White Elantra was observed on cameras traveling northbound on Stadium Way at Nevada Street, Stadium Way at Grimes Way, Stadium Drive at Wilson Road, and Stadium Way at Cougar Way. Depiction showing Moscow and Pullman: BUHOSE Mastite Depiction showing White Elantra's path of travel (not to scale): 8

Legend White Elantra seen leaving WSU Campus White Elantra seen Returning to WSU Campus Arrows are camera locations and indicate vehicle direction of travel Puliman Fun Stadium Washington State University WSU Bear Center On November 25, 2022, MPD asked area law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for white Hyundai Elantras in the area. On November 29, 2022, at approximately 12:28 a.m., Washington State University (WSU) Police Officer Daniel Tiengo, queried white Elantras registered at WSU. As a result of that query he located a 2015 white Elantra with a Pennsylvania license plate LFZ-8649. This vehicle was registered to Bryan Kohberger hereafter "Kohberger" residing at is approximately three-quarters of a mile from the intersection of Stadium Way and Cougar Way (last camera location that picked up the white Elantra). 9 That same day at approximately 12:58 a.m., WSU Officer Curtis Whitman was looking for white Hyundai Elantra's and located a 2015 white Hyundai Elantra at in Pullman in the parking lot. | is an apartment complex that houses WSU

students. Officer Whitman also ran the car and it returned to Kohberger with a Washington tag. I reviewed Kohberg's WA state driver license information and photograph. This license indicates that Kohberger is a white male with a height of 6' and weighs 185 pounds. Additionally, the photograph of Kohberger shows that he has bushy eyebrows. Kohberger's physical description is consistent with the description of the male D.M. saw inside the King Road Residence on November 13th Further investigation, including a review of Latah County Sheriff's Deputy CPL Duke's body cam and reports, showed that on August 21, 2022, Bryan Kohberger was detained as part of a traffic stop that occurred in Moscow, Idaho, by CPL Duke. At the time, Kohberger, who was the sole occupant, was driving a white 2015 Hyundai Elantra with Pennsylvania plate LFZ-8649 which was set to expire on November 30, 2022. During the stop, which was recorded via a law enforcement body camera, Kohberger provided his phone number as 8458, hereafter the "8458 Phone" as his cellular telephone number. Investigators conducted electronic database queries and learned that the 8458 Phone is a number issued by AT&T. On October 14, 2022, Bryan Kohberger was detained as part of a traffic stop by a WSU Police Officer. Upon review of that body cam and report of the stop, Kohberger was the sole occupant and was driving a white 2015 Hyundai Elantra with Pennsylvania plate LFZ-8649. On November 18, 2022, according to WA state licensing, Kohberger registered the 2015 white Elantra with WA and later received WA plate CFB-8708. Prior to this time, the 2015 white Elantra was registered in Pennsylvania, which does not require a front license plate to be displayed (this was learned through communications with a Pennsylvania officer who is currently certified in the State of Pennsylvania). Based on my own experience and 10

communication with Washington law enforcement, I know that Idaho and Washington require front and back license plates to be displayed. Investigators believe that Kohberger is still driving the 2015 white Elantra because his vehicle was captured on December 13, 2022, by a license plate reader in Loma, Colorado (information provided by a query to a database). Kohberger's Elantra was then queried on December 15, 2022 by law enforcement in Hancock County, Indiana. On December 16, 2022 at approximately 2:26 p.m., surveillance video showed Kohberger's Elantra in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania. The sole occupant of the vehicle was a white male whose description was consistent with Kohberger. Kohberger has family in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania (learned through a TLO search and locate tool database query). Based on information provided on the WSU website, Kohberger is currently a Ph.D Student in Criminology at Washington State University. Pursuant to records provided by a member of the interview panel for Pullman Police Department, we learned that Kohberger's past education included undergraduate degrees in psychology and cloud-based forensics. These records also showed Kohberger wrote an essay when he applied for an internship with the Pullman Police Department in the fall of 2022. Kohberger wrote in his essay he had interest in assisting rural law enforcement agencies with how to better collect and analyze technological data in public safety operations. Kohberger also posted a Reddit survey which can be found by an open-source internet search. The survey asked for participants to provide information to "understand how emotions and psychological traits influence decision making when committing a crime." As part of this investigation, law enforcement obtained search warrants to determine cellular devices that utilized cellular towers in close proximity to the King Road Residence on 11

November 13, 2022 between 3:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. After determining that Kohberger was associated to both the 2015 White Elantra and the 8458 Phone, investigators reviewed these search warrant returns. A query of the 8458 Phone in these returns did not show the 8458 Phone utilizing cellular tower resources in close proximity to the King Road Residence between 3:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. Based on my training, experience, and conversations with law enforcement officers that specialize in the utilization of cellular telephone records as part of investigations, individuals can either leave their cellular telephone at a different location before committing a crime or turn their cellular telephone off prior to going to a location to commit a crime. This is done by subjects in an effort to avoid alerting law enforcement that a cellular device associated with them was in a particular area where a crime is committed. I also know that on numerous occasions, subjects will surveil an area where they intend to commit a crime prior to the date of the crime. Depending on the circumstances, this could be done a few days before or for several months prior to the commission of a crime. During these types of surveillance, it is possible that an individual would not leave their cellular telephone at a separate location or turn it off since they do not plan to commit the offense on that particular day. On December 23, 2022, I applied for and was granted a search warrant for historical phone records between November 12, 2022 at 12:00 a.m. and November 14, at 12:00 a.m. for the 8458 Phone held by the phone provider AT&T (approximately 24 hours proceeding and following the times of the homicides). On December 23, 2022, pursuant to that search warrant, I received records for the 8458 Phone from AT&T. These records indicated that the 8458 Phone is subscribed to Bryan Kohberger at an address in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania and the account has been open since 12

June 23, 2022. These records also included historical cell site location information (CSLI) for the 8458 Phone. After receiving this information, I consulted with an FBI Special Agent (SA) that is certified as a member of the Cellular Analysis Survey Team (CAST). Members of CAST are certified with the FBI to provide expert testimony in the field of historical CSLI and are required to pass extensive training that includes both written and practical examinations prior to be certified with CAST as well as the completion of yearly certification requirements. Additionally, the FBI CAST SA that I consulted with has over fifteen years of federal law enforcement experience, which includes six years with the FBI. From information provided by CAST, I was able to determine estimated locations for the 8458 Phone from November 12, 2022 to November 13, 2022, the time period authorized by the court. On November 13, 2022 at approximately 2:42 a.m., the 8458 Phone was utilizing cellular resources that provide coverage to hereafter the "Kohberger Residence." At approximately 2:47 a.m., the 8458 Phone utilized cellular resources that provide coverage southeast of the Kohberger Residence consistent with the 8458 Phone leaving the Kohberger Residence and traveling south through Pullman, WA. This is consistent with the movement of the white Elantra. At approximately 2:47 a.m. the 8458 Phone stops reporting to the network, which is consistent with either the phone being in an area without cellular coverage, the connection to the network is disabled (such as putting the phone in airplane mode), or that the phone is turned off. The 8458 Phone does not report to the network again until approximately 4:48 a.m. at which time it utilized cellular resources that provide coverage to ID state highway 95 south of Moscow, ID near Blaine, ID (north of Genesee). Between 4:50 a.m. and 5:26 a.m., the phone utilizes cellular resources that are consistent with the 8458 Phone traveling south on ID state highway 95 to Genesee, ID, then traveling west towards 13

Uniontown, ID, and then north back into Pullman, WA. At approximately 5:30 a.m., the 8458 Phone is utilizing resources that provide coverage to Pullman, WA and consistent with the phone traveling back to the Kohberger Residence. The 8458 Phone's movements are consistent with the movements of the white Elantra that is observed traveling north on Stadium Drive at approximately 5:27 a.m. Based on a review of the 8458 Phone's estimated locations and travel, the 8458 Phone's travel is consistent with that of the white Elantra. Further review indicated that the 8458 Phone utilized cellular resources on November 13, 2022 that are consistent with the 8458 Phone leaving the area of the Kohberger Residence at approximately 9:00 a.m. and traveling to Moscow, ID. Specifically, the 8458 Phone utilized cellular resources that would provide coverage to the King Road Residence between 9:12 a.m. and 9:21 a.m. The 8458 Phone next utilized cellular resources that are consistent with the 8458 Phone traveling back to the area of the Kohberger Residence and arriving to the area at approximately 9:32 a.m. Below is a depiction (not to scale) of the possible route taken based off of cellular site locations: 14

Ateistring This is a possible route based off celluar device location Investigators found that the 8458 Phone did connect to a cell phone tower that provides service to Moscow on November 14, 2022, but investigators do not believe the 8458 Phone was in Moscow on that date. The 8458 Phone has not connected to any towers that provide service to Moscow since that date. Based on my training, experience, and the facts of the investigation thus far, I believe that Kohberger, the user of the 8458 Phone, was likely the driver of the white Elantra that is observed departing Pullman, WA and that this vehicle is likely Suspect Vehicle 1. Additionally, the route of travel of the 8458 Phone during the early morning hours of November 13, 2022 and the lack of the 8458 Phone reporting to AT&T between 2:47 a.m. and 4:48 a.m. is consistent with Kohberger attempting to conceal his location during the quadruple homicide that occurred at the King Road Residence. 15

) On December 23, 2022, I was granted a search warrant for Kohberger's historical CSLI from June 23, 2022 to current, prospective location information, and a Pen Register/Trap and Trace on the 8458 Phone to aid in efforts to determine if Kohberger stalked any of the victims in this case prior to the offense, conducted surveillance on the King Road Residence, was in contact with any of the victims' associates before or after the alleged offense, any locations that may contain evidence of the murders that occurred on November 13, 2022, the location of the white Elantra registered to Kohberger, as well as the location of Kohberger. On December 23, 2022 pursuant to that search warrant, I received historical records for the 8458 Phone from AT&T from the time the account was opened in June 2022. After consulting with CAST SA, I was able to determine estimated locations for the 8458 Phone from June 2022 to present, the time period authorized by the court. The records for the 8458 Phone show the 8458 Phone utilizing cellular resources that provide coverage to the area of 1122 King Road on at least twelve occasions prior to November 13, 2022. All of these occasions, except for one, occurred in the late evening and early morning hours of their respective days. One of these occasions, on August 21, 2022, the 8458 Phone utilized cellular resources providing coverage to the King Road Residence from approximately 10:34 p.m. to 11:35 p.m. At approximately 11:37 p.m., Kohberger was stopped by Latah County Sheriff's Deputy CPL Duke, as mentioned above. The 8548 Phone was utilizing cellular resources consistent with the location of the traffic stop during this time (Farm Road and Pullman Highway). Further analysis of the cellular data provided showed the 8458 Phone utilized cellular resources on November 13, 2022 consistent with the Phone travelling from Pullman, Washington to Lewiston, Idaho via US Highway 195. At approximately 12:36 p.m., the 8458 Phone utilized cellular resources that would provide coverage to Kate's Cup of Joe coffee stand located at 810 16

Port Drive, Clarkston, WA. Surveillance footage from the US Chef's Store located at 820 Port Drive, Clarkston, WA and adjacent to Kate's Cup of Joe showed a white Elantra, consistent with Suspect Vehicle 1, drive past Kate's Cup of Joe at a time consistent with the cellular data from the 8548 Phone. At approximately 12:46 p.m., the 8458 Phone then utilized cellular data in the area of the Albertson's grocery store at 400 Bridge Street in Clarkston, Washington. Surveillance footage obtained from the Albertson's showed Kohberger exit the white Elantra, consistent with Suspect Vehicle 1, at approximately 12:49 p.m. Interior surveillance cameras showed Kohberger walk through the store, purchase unknown items at the checkout, and leave at approximately 1:04 p.m. Kohberger's possible path of travel is depicted below (not to scale): 149 WASHINGTON 17

Additional analysis of records for the 8458 Phone indicated that between approximately 5:32 p.m. and 5:36 p.m., the 8458 Phone utilized cellular resources that provide coverage to Johnson, ID. The 8458 Phone then stops reporting to the network from approximately 5:36 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. That is consistent with the 8458 Phone being the area that the 8458 Phone traveled in the hours immediately following the suspected time the homicides occurred. On December 27, 2022, Pennsylvania Agents recovered the trash from the Kohberger family residence located in Albrightsville, PA. That evidence was sent to the Idaho State Lab for testing. On December 28, 2022, the Idaho State Lab reported that a DNA profile obtained from the trash and the DNA profile obtained from the sheath, identified a male as not being excluded as the biological father of Suspect Profile. At least 99.9998% of the male population would be expected to be excluded from the possibility of being the suspect's biological father. 2 Based on the above information, I am requesting an arrest warrant be issued for Bryan C. Kohberger, (DOB) 11/21/1994, for Burglary at 1122 King Street in Moscow, Idaho, and four counts of Murder in the First Degree for the murders of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin. I declare under penalty of perjury pursuant to the law of the State of Idaho that the foregoing is true and correct. 12/29/2022 Date Bhr Affiant 18 #157