A Community Food Drive at the Local Level 2012
“I think our neighborhoods should hold a food drive with the goal of collecting a ton of food; literally,” said Mitch Ellsworth, President of the Arbors HOA when talking to Tom Hicks, President of the Maple Ridge Highlands HOA. And with the vocalization of that vision, the seed was planted.
The occasion for this conversation was at a Halloween celebration held jointly between the three neighborhoods of The Arbors ( Maple Ridge Highlands ( and Maple Woods (maplewoodscommunity.com). These three communities located on the southern end of Maple Valley, WA, have found many occasions to combine efforts to organize community events such as a Halloween parade of costumes, National Night Out, and jointly coordinated community garage sales. But this seed that had been planted was an opportunity to organize together in order to benefit the wider community of MapleValley.
This seed of an idea sat un-germinated throughout the remainder of 2011. But Tom Hicks, an engineer by profession, could not help but calculate exactly what it would take to collect a ton of food in donations. The Arbors has 60 homes, Maple Ridge Highlands has 274 homes and Maple Woods has 301 homes. Working together, the three neighborhoods would represent 635 homes.
With a ton equaling 2000 pounds, and the average weight of a can of food assumed to be 15 ounces, collecting a ton of food would be equivalent to collecting approximately 2135 cans. Determining the number of cans in a ton certainly did not make a ton sound any smaller. But when you consider that there are 635 homes who could potentially donate, the goal began to sound a lot more realistic.
Clearly no one entered into this with the expectation that all of the homeowners would be in a position to contribute. Given the economic conditions we have all been through, it is likely that some of the 635 homeowners would likely be in a position to benefit from such a food drive. But if 60% of the homes would be able to contribute, an average of 6 cans per home is all that would be needed to reach this goal. It was quite apparent that collecting a ton of food in donations should not only be possible, but it should be very achievable.
Because this is a story of a community organized food drive, it is as much a story about the people involved, as it is a story of the approach taken. While the number of people directly involved started out small, the numbers increased throughout the food drive. This is the story of how the people representing these 635 homes in three neighborhoods, coordinated their efforts to exceed their goal of collecting a ton of food to benefit the Maple Valley Food Bank & Emergency Services ( The kickoff for this food drive was on February 18, and concluded with the delivery of the donations to Maple Valley Food Bank on March 10.
In early January of this year, Tom Hicks contacted Mitch Ellsworth to let him know he had been thinking about the food drive goal that Mitch had proposed in the previous October. Tom shared with Mitch how many cans would be required, and how the prospect of collecting a ton of food in donations not only looked feasible, but very attainable.
Tom had also prepared a breakdown of the number of volunteers that would be required from the three neighborhoods. From The Arbors with 60 homes, 4 volunteers would be needed. From Maple Ridge Highlands with 274 homes, 20 volunteers would be needed. From Maple Woods with 301 homes, 24 volunteers would be needed. This set the ideal minimum number of volunteers at 48. However, this food drive was all presupposed on the involvement of the Maple Woods homeowners as well.
An email was sent to the board of the Maple Woods Association to ask if they would support and encourage this food drive. A name was given to it, labeling the food drive the Ton O’ Fun Food Drive. (Although Mitch noted that if the word “Fun” was to be included, there had certainly better be some fun activities!) The Maple Woods board replied back that they would definitely be interested in supporting this cause. Deanne Ramsay volunteered from Maple Woods to assist in the organizing.
Mitch and Tom finalized the framework for a food drive effort that included recognition of items that the Food Bank had indicated would be needed. It would be an added goal of the food drive to encourage donation of items that are expressly needed by the Food Bank. An example of this was packages of diapers. For the money spent on diapers, they may not weigh as much as cans of food. So the idea was established to create an “equivalency” to encourage donations of diapers. A standard package of diapers was set equivalent to 8 cans of food. Similarly, equivalencies were to be established for other items as well.
A final organizational meeting was held with two representatives from Maple Ridge Highlands, two from The Arbors, and one from Maple Woods. The form of the food drive was established as an initial kick off meeting with volunteers on one Saturday, followed by collections on the next two Saturday afternoons and the morning of the third Saturday. After each afternoon collection day, the tallies would be reported and summed up for all homeowners to see. In the afternoon of the final collection day, the volunteers would gather for a final count before heading off to the Maple Valley Food Bank to deliver the donations.
Following the organizational meeting, volunteers were sought to do the actual weekly collecting of donations. Thrive Community Fitness ( a nearby fitness club, volunteered the use of their gym space for the food drive kickoff. It was an amazing sight to see the number of volunteers who came out, and the energy and enthusiasm of all present. A number of door prizes were drawn (including toys for the kids who were present) before getting down to business.
The collection process was explained to all of the volunteers. Each neighborhood had a large format map of their respective community posted on a wall. After receiving their direction, the volunteers gathered around their respective maps to “stake their claim” for the group of homes for which they would be responsible. Once each volunteer laid claim to their homes, they marked their homes on smaller 11x17 maps to take with them. After everyone gathered their bags and fliers, they left to prepare for the collections of the next weekend.
But where is the “Fun” in Ton O’ Fun?
It was decided that special events would be scheduled to occur at a central community park location in the afternoon of the two pick up days (weather dependent). The first Saturday was rained out, but on the second day the fun was on! The use of a large “bounce-house” was donated by Big Macs Big Bounce House (253-266-7604) for the afternoon just to encourage families to come. A face painting station was set up to decorate the children in festive designs. Raffle tickets were given to homeowners who brought additional food donations to the park, or who provided cash donations at the park.
It was announced that the Raffle would be held at the final Saturday’s meeting (need not be present to win). Thrive Community Fitness not only provided the meeting space for the kick off meeting, but they also donated a number of free memberships for the Raffle, as well as volunteered the use of the gym space for the final meeting.
The final meeting also provided the last opportunity for people to obtain Raffle tickets. Everyone who attended received Raffle tickets, in addition to anyone who donated food or cash in person at the final meeting. This meeting was a whirlwind of counting the final food donations, adding it to the tally, and drawing the Raffle prizes (Thrive memberships, Windows operating system, coffee, drink cups, mugs, etc). It was a wonderful celebration to be able to announce that not only had the neighborhoods met their goal, but they exceeded their goal of a ton of food.
From the final meeting at Thrive, the volunteers caravanned across town with the food donations in a number of trucks and cars. Delivering the food to the Food Bank was an amazing experience that would have been nice for all the volunteers to have been able to experience. At the Food Bank was the only time all the donations were seen at one location. As the food was transferred to box after box and loaded onto pallets, Wes Giehm, Warehouse/Maintenance Coordinator, was heard to exclaim “Wow, wow, wow” over and over.
The final tally as weighed at the Food bank was 1.5 tons of donations, as well as an extra $350 in cash. What a wonderful thing to be able to beat the goal by such a substantial margin!
If any other neighborhoods would like to receive copies of the instructions, equivalency forms, and other miscellaneous information, please complete the “Comment” form at The neighborhoods of The Arbors, Maple Ridge Highlands and Maple Woods would be happy to share, and would welcome creating a little friendly competition with other communities.