Summer Squeeze Food Drive

When children are home for the summer, the result can be higher grocery bills for Irving families already struggling with higher food costs and inflation. While many school-age children participate in Irving ISD’s Summer Meals Program, food pantry requests during the summer months increase significantly. Because of this need, each year we hold our Summer Squeeze Food Drive –– an event to encourage donations to the Irving Cares food pantry. You can bring your friends, family and co-workers together to raise funds for a really good cause. You can make a difference in the community by feeding families in need and doing good for others.

Categories Include:

1. Business Level A (1 to 50 employees)
2. Business Level B (51 to 150 employees)
3. Business Level C (151 or more employees)
4. Faith Based Organization
5. Individual/Family

Donations of non-perishable food items and cash can be made in multiple ways:

• Canned goods, paper goods, hygiene products and other non-perishables –
  To arrange a drop off time or schedule pick up of items, please contact [email protected]
• Online food and cash donations –
  Both can be made 24/7 at IrvingCares.org/virtual-food-drive via our Virtual Food Drive page. In order for contributions to count toward your team, be sure donors know to use your team/organization name in the space labeled Additional Information (Order Notes).
• Cash donations-
  Why cash? Monetary donations are extremely important since it allows Irving Cares to purchase perishable food items, such as fresh meat, milk and eggs, and we can often purchase items for a price lower than retail. Your cash donations help ensure Irving Cares has a sufficient inventory of nutritionally-balanced food options.

Encourage Participation:

There are many ways to participate. You can collect items and/or encourage online donations. If your organization determines collecting food items isn’t something you’d like to do, we have ideas for alternatives…some fundraising ideas that can be modified to fit a variety of circumstances and current guidelines. Money raised during alternative-food-drive fundraisers can be used at IrvingCares.org/virtual-food-drive to earn your team points for each dollar. Donations can be encouraged in many ways, including some of these options:

• Social media fundraisers
• Sports bracket or squares
• Drive-thru food donation drop off

Incentivize and Award Various Levels of Participation:

Teams and individuals may enjoy being recognized for their good deeds. The thrill of competition, often encourages even greater participation. We have some suggestions to incentivize your group. Certificates of participation are a terrific way to acknowledge everyone. Pizza or breakfast tacos could be awarded to best teams. Be creative – most folks love to be recognized for their efforts. A few options you may like to consider:

• Lunch or pizza day
• Trophies & certificates
• Breakfast tacos

Interesting Facts To Share:

Irving Cares has been helping Irving residents since 1957. Below are some facts to share with those interested in knowing more about Irving Cares and how their food drive donations will make a difference.

• A food pantry order for a week’s worth of meals averages 48 lbs/person of nutritionally-balanced food
• Irving Cares has been helping families in Irving for more than 65 years
• The mission of Irving Cares is to provide focused assistance for Irving residents to address a financial crisis
• The CARES in our name stands for Community Assistance Referral & Emergency Services
• Irving Cares has been voted the 2022 Best Local Nonprofit in Irving (Chamber of Commerce)
• Top needed items are canned meat, canned vegetables, canned fruit, peanut butter and meals in a can
• $10 buys five cartons of fresh eggs
• $60 buys 100 cans of non-perishable food
• $120 buys one week’s groceries for 15 families

Most Needed Items:

How It Works:

If you have any questions, please contact us, but these are the basic guidelines:

• Register your team name & direct contact information with [email protected] or call Terri at 972-721-9181.
• The number of points and funds raised will be used to calculate a total score. The high score in each category will be one of our five winners.
• Points will be counted for donations received Monday, June 6 through Friday, August 12, 2022.
• One point is awarded to the named team for every pound of food donated to the food pantry.
• Two points are awarded to the named team for every dollar donated to the food pantry.
• Food donations can be dropped off at the food bank, located at 440 S. Nursery Road, #101, Irving, TX 75060, Monday-Friday from June 6 through August 12. Please call ahead (972-721-9181) to schedule a drop-off time.
• Checks should be mailed to: IRVING CARES, Attn: Summer Squeeze, P.O. Box 177425, Irving, TX 75017-7425.
• Cash donations and online shopping are available any time on our website: IrvingCares.org/virtual-food-drive
• Be sure to indicate your team name when making any online donations or when mailing a check. Team/ organization names can be noted in the space labeled Additional Information (Order Notes).
• Post your Food Drive pics on social media using #IrvingCares and #ICSummerSqueeze. We’ll choose and recognize our favorite photos.
• We plan to have winning teams announced by the end of August.

Be sure to request your Summer Squeeze promotion packet. It includes several assets to help get your food drive started: printable pdfs, social posts, email mockups and more are available for use. If you need anything we haven’t included, please reach out to Terri Oliver and we’ll do what we can to help your group have a successful food drive to benefit the Irving community.

If you plan to use the Irving Cares logo in your food drive promotion, simply ask us to email you the correct logo and usage info.