A friend of mine is heading a school literacy event for pre-K through 6th grade and is looking for ideas of how and where to go about seeking donations for books and food. If anyone has done this before and/or has any ideas, I would appreciate it. Thank you! :)
Ask the Rotary Club or Kiwanis or other service groups in your area.
For food, restaurants will sometimes donate if you ask for, say, 100 brownies, or what you need. Split it up among several.
Good luck!
I would hit up all the area bookstores for books, not sure about food...maybe area grocery stores or restraunts?
Target and Walmart are pretty sure bets but you have to get to them at the start of a month, they have monthly budgets for donations
Wal-Mart, but make sure you bring the non-for profit or any ID numbers you will need...you have to fill out a form and they usually will donate gift cards...try grocery stores, I know it seems weird but they usually have a book section and they usually give gift cards too. Try local bookstores and amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com. Try local businesses too, ask for small donations and try to hit everyone and make sure you keep a list of who donated so you can make a sign and list the ones that donated. Good luck!
You don't say how much time you have, but around here some of the grocery stores collected money through checkout donations.
Does anyone in your group live in a community with a neighborhood book club? Our community bookclub is doing books as gifts for children at a local school. If not, then perhaps the library has a book club that would be interested.
Scout groups (Boy/Girl/Cub/Brownie), 4-H clubs, church youth groups all have philanthropy participation, so perhaps one (or all!) of these kinds of groups can help out. Also, check with some local businesses, since a lot of them like to give back to communities, and even some corporate businesses do the same (and they don't necessarily require you to plaster their name all over sponsorship!).
I've seen boxes in stores with a sign asking for book donations. Just go to the store and ask if they would be willing to participate. Be sure to be clear about what kind of books you want.
As far as food donations, go to each place and ask for a donation. Your friends school should have a committee that has done this before and will have a list of possible donors. In my granddaughter's school the PTA has several fund raisers throughout the year and could share that info with your friend.
At our annual family reading night we set up a book swap, putting out the word to all families to bring gently used books with them to swap, even setting up a box to collect beforehand. You can limit to kids books if you like, or open it up to the adults if that's appropriate. I think it's good for students to see the adults excited to pick out new books, too! It requires a table, someone to set books out and pack them up for donation at the end of the day/evening. It's great for everyone to go home with a "new to them" book whether or not they brought anything to contribute—some kids have very few books at home, so it's a good idea to help them build their own library.
