Many in our community have reached out to express interest in helping our food pantry this holiday season. This year has brought so many changes to the pantry, including a complete overhaul of how we distribute food, a move from 160 to 40 volunteers/week, and a significant increase in new visitors. But through it all, we have provided carts full of healthy, fresh food to the people in the community who need it. We are so appreciative of the people in and around Charlottesville like you who have supported and continue to support our mission!
Given the restrictions on the number of volunteers we can use in the pantry to protect the health of our staff and visitors and the demand we are seeing this winter, holiday volunteering looks a little bit different this year. We have put together this guide to assist the wonderful people who are interested in helping the pantry by providing some alternative ways to support us through this holiday season. Here we’ve listed some ideas for fundraisers and the type of donation drives that will help us the most, and some guidance on how to conduct them. Again, thank you so much for your interest in helping Loaves and Fishes this holiday season!
If you have any questions about this guide or how to start your own fundraiser or donation drive, please feel free to reach out to Gaby Lohner at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Please drop off donations at the pantry at 2050 Lambs Road, 9am -4pm Tuesday and Thursday and 9am-2pm on Fridays. If you prefer contactless drop-off, you can leave items on the picnic table at the front door and ring the doorbell.
Happy Holidays!
Fundraisers
One of the best ways to support our work at Loaves & Fishes is through monetary donations. This allows us to be flexible with the donations and use them in the most impactful ways around the food pantry, such as contributing to the new refrigerator we are building to store more fresh food or the new overhang we hope to build to rain-proof our distributions. Monetary donations can be given directly on the Monetary Donations page of our website, but another way to connect to your network is to share a fundraiser on Facebook. Facebook fundraisers send money straight to Loaves & Fishes with no fees, and help you reach a wide audience of friends and family. Here are the steps to share a Loaves & Fishes fundraiser on Facebook:
1. Step 1: Log into your Facebook account
2. Step 2: On the left hand side of your Facebook feed, find “Fundraisers” (you may need to click the “See more” button):
3. Within the “Fundraisers” page, click the “+Raise Money” button on the left:
4. Choose “Nonprofit” and search for Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry, Inc.:
5. Once you have the fundraising page open, you can edit the title and description of your fundraiser on the left to personalize it.
6. Once you’ve personalized your fundraiser, click the blue “Create” button, and the fundraiser goes live on your Facebook page! From there, you and your friends and family can share the fundraiser, and any donations will be sent straight to Loaves and Fishes.
Donation Drives
Another way you can support the food pantry this holiday season is through donation drives. While we receive both fresh and shelf-stable food from the USDA and our local grocery partners, we always like to provide additional items that our clients need around the household, such as baby goods, pet food and cleaning supplies. One way to help out the pantry this holiday season is by running a donation drive for these items! This can involve collecting items from friends and family directly, or running your own fundraiser to then go and buy those goods.
We ask that you drop donated goods at the food pantry. This way you will not get caught up in the traffic of a distribution when dropping off the donation. Here is a list of items that we have high demand for, as a starting point for your donation drive:
1. Diapers and Baby Food: Many of our clients have young children who need baby goods, such as diapers, wipes, and baby food. We hand out diapers of all sizes. We will happily accept baby food and formula before expiration dates for our tiniest tots.
2. Pet Food: Many of our clients have pets at home who deserve a yummy meal too! We happily accept bags of dry pet food (we especially need cat food!), which we then re-bag to hand out to our visitors. We can also give out cans of wet cat food.
3. Personal hygiene supplies: Personal hygiene supplies, such as hand soap, toothpaste, body soap and lotion are greatly appreciated as donations, especially in a year where personal hygiene is so important. We would also love donations of feminine hygiene products, such as tampons and sanitary napkins, to support our female visitors.
4. Cleaning supplies: Donations of cleaning supplies such as bleach, garbage bags, laundry detergent and other household cleaners always go fast! Our clients are thankful for these additional products that help them keep homes clean and families safe.
5. Masks: Another way 2020 has changed operations at the pantry is that we now try to hand out masks to our visitors whenever possible! Throughout the year we received some handmade fabric masks for both adults and children which our visitors loved. We would happily accept any donations of masks.
6. Kitchen goods: As we are giving out food, we also like to make sure our visitors have the tools around the house to make sure they are getting the most out of the food. We happily accept can openers, reusable shopping bags, aluminum foil, ziplock bags, and tupperware containers.
Food Drives
We are so appreciative when members of the community support our main goal - providing food! We ask that you donate shelf-stable, low sugar items. We have put together this list of food donations which are most needed at the pantry:
We ask that you drop donated goods at the food pantry 9am-4pm Tuesday and Thursday and 9am-2pm on Fridays. If you prefer contactless drop-off, you can leave items on the picnic table at the front door and ring the doorbell.
Merchandise
One other way to support the pantry (and to look good doing it!) is to buy something from our merchandise store. We have Loaves & Fishes t-shirts, water bottles, tote bags, and stickers for sale. You can see the merchandise and make a purchase using this google form. The form allows you to choose the merchandise you’d like to purchase and will give you some information about how to pay for and pick up your new items!
