The Middletown Lions board decides to have a food drive by a motion at the meeting. They pick a date & chairperson to lead. A committee of Lion volunteers is selected (usually 3 to 4 people is enough).
The chairperson schedules a meeting with their committee
1. They decide the hours to run the food drive
2. They decide who is to get the collected items
3. They decide where the collection site is and if permission or permits are needed
4. They have to arrange vehicles to collect and distribute the items collected
5. They need to come up with advertising ideas and how to get the word out
6. They need to have a signup sheet made for fellow Lions to volunteer
7. Send reminders to those that volunteered to help
8. Remind the people where you plan on having the items dropped off for collection a few
days before the event to be sure everything is set up.
9. Deliver the collect donations to those chosen to receive
10. Keep time of the volunteer hours the Lion accumulated for the Food Drive
11. Send thank you notes were appropriateWhat we did for our Saturday, October 4, 2025 Food Drive
Lion Connie Woods was elected to chair the committee.
We met & decided:
1. We would have the Food Drive from 10:00 AM -5:00 PM
2. We decided on 3 businesses to receive the donated items: EACM (East AreaCommunity Ministry), Sparc (Single Parent Resource Center, they support parentsthat are working and going to school) and the First Baptist Church food pantry located in front of the church property.
3. We decide we would like the items to be dropped off in front of the Middletown City Hall where there is a drive in and drive out access. I then had to call the Mayor’s office and asked them if we could do that. I spoke with a clerk (Brittany). I gave her the date and time and told her what we planned on doing. She in turned asked the Mayor and let me know he approved it. I should have typed a letter and gotten a rewritten response. Also followup mid-week with the County Clerk (they only work Mon-Thursday)
4. Lion Marty was responsible for getting us a trailer to put the collected items into as people rode through and dropped their items off.
5. We contacted the groups receiving the donations and asking them what item they would like receive in the Food Drive. Lion Melinda, Darrell and myself each contacted a group.
6. We decided to make a flier and distribute, put notifications on Facebook. Notify individuals, restaurants, churches, and homes where we lived. Put the fliers on bulletin boards at the First Baptist church and sent one to their email so they could post it on their website. We send a copy of the flier to The Middletown Chamber of commerce. We posted one to the City of Middletown via the Mayor’s office. Al these places were contacted first before sending them the fliers. We also posted flier at the library and dropped one off at the Star Bucks hoping they posted on their bulletin board. Lions Melinda and I handled those tasks.
We also had some previous banners from other Food Drives that we were able to change the date as well as some signs to put up 2 weeks prior to the drive. We had to get permission from the City of Middletown to put the signs up ahead of time. I contacted City Hall and they sent me to the correct person to get this authorized.
7. I made a sign-up sheet and took it to the meeting to have other Lions volunteer to help collect the donations and to help distribute what was collected.
8. I contacted all the volunteers a few days before the food drive to remind them about the drive and them volunteering. I called City Hall to confirm and good thing I did as they forgot to let police officers know not to park there.
9. We distributed the items collected to the various organizations that we could. Deliver the rest when we could conveniently for both parties.
10. Made a list of the Lion Volunteers and the number of hours that worked at the Food
Drive. Give the information to the keeper of the time.
11. Sent thank you notes to those you feel appropriate. I sent one to the Mayor’s office.
