Congratulations on being selected as a participating high school for Tackle Hunger! Tackle Hunger is a food drive in partnership with KSDK 5 On Your Side, Operation Food Search and Neighbors Credit Union. Each week 2 schools playing each other in football on Friday night will compete in a weeklong food drive. The school who collects the largest amount of donated food will win and be announced during the 10:00 p.m. news on KSDK Channel 5, Friday night after the game. This guide is a tool to help your school collect donated food and to provide a full overview on how Tackle Hunger operates.
Food drive contact for schools participating in Tackle Hunger:
Matt Kasate
Matt.kasate@operationfoodsearch.org
314.451.2472 (direct)
All the donated food will be picked up by Operation Food Search and shared with our partner food agencies at no cost. Our partner food agencies distribute the food in their local communities to families for free.
Founded in 1981, Operation Food Search is a hunger relief organization that provides food, nutrition education and innovative programs in order to reduce food insecurity and increase equitable access to food. We serve 200,000 people every month through a network of 330 partners in 27 counties in Missouri and Illinois. We use a combination of immediate food assistance and supportive services, while also working on long-term solutions and systemic changes to help solve the problem of hunger.
Logistics For Food Drive Barrel Drop off and Pick Up
Operation Food Search drivers will drop off 15 barrels at both participating schools on Monday and pick them up Friday, typically between 10AM-12PM. Once the barrels are picked up and weighed, the total weight of the food donations by each school will be sent to KSDK and announced during the 10:00 p.m. news.
Please ensure that the information requested below has been sent to Matt Kasate by the Thursday of the week before your school is participating in Tackle Hunger. This information is needed for food drive barrels to be dropped off and picked up.
Contact person for OFS driver:
Phone number:
Name of School and Address for drop off and pick up:
Any Special instructions (building number, loading dock, etc.):
Important information for schools receiving barrels
- For everyone’s safety, please no stairs. ADA compliant ramps must be available for filled barrel takeaway.
- All the barrels must be at one location for filled barrel takeaway. (An example would be in the school lobby or near the main office)
- Please be respectful of our food drive barrels, they are essential to our organization. Each barrel and wheelbase costs around $100 to replace. Each time we have to replace a barrel we are taking vital funds away for purchasing food for families in need. If any barrels are lost or damaged, you will be asked to replace them.
Families and faculty at each school are encouraged to make food donations throughout the week. There is also an option to give a financial donation to Operation Food Search for Tackle Hunger through a donation link. Every $1 you give to meet the immediate need provides $10 in food and nutrition services!
At each home game of Tackle Hunger Operation Food Search and Neighbors Credit Union will have representatives with an informational table where fans can learn more about food insecurity in the bi-state area, receive information about food assistance, and can make a financial contribution to help families living with food insecurity. We are not able to collect physical food donations at the games.
3 Ways to Boost Food Drive Participation at Your School
Encourage Student Involvement
Examples of this include letting student organizations such a student council, service clubs, sports teams, and other student groups run and organize the drive at your school. You can encourage them to come up with creative ideas such as students making fun videos to promote the food drive and fun incentives for people brining in food donations.
Communicate the Food Drive
Use all your communication channels to promote the food drive to families and facility members at your school. This can include school newsletters/newspapers, email blasts, posting about Tackle Hunger on you school website, social media posts, food drive flyers printed and placed around school, promoting the food drive during school announcements, and more. Please see an example social media post below.
(Insert high school name) has been selected to participate in Tackle Hunger! Tackle Hunger is a food drive campaign organized by @KSDKnews and sponsored by @NeighborsCreditUnion. We will be competing against (insert competing high school name) in a weeklong food drive benefiting @operationfoodsearch. Students and facility are encouraged to make non-perishable food donations from the list below and bring them to school, Monday-Friday before the game. The winner of the food drive will be announced during the 10 p.m. news on Friday night after the game. #TackleHunger
(Insert Food Drive Flyer)
Please tag KSDK, Neighbors Credit Union, and Operation Food Search on social media posts.
Have Fun!!!
The most successful food drives are the most fun! This can include fun incentives for students making donations such as fun dress days for bringing food donations, holding a Tackle Hunger pep rally leading up to the game, a competition of which grade can fill up the most barrels, creating fun videos with the food donations, and creating fun games to play with the food donations before they are picked up. These can include school spirit related sculptures/murals from the donated food, magnet fishing for tuna cans (you can have prizes on the back of the cans), creating a fun design from cereal boxes and pushing them over like dominos, and more!
