The start of the new school year is the perfect time to hold your own food drive for Manna Conejo Valley Food Bank. It is also the perfect time to help out those in your community by donating to Manna.
Although we take all unopened, unexpired food to help out those in the community, there are a few high priority items that we look for during the back to school season. Some of these high priority items include:
- Granola and fruit bars
- Tomato sauce and paste
- Juice boxes
- Pancake mix
- Ramen
- Mac & Cheese
- Jelly and Jams
- Canned tuna and canned meat
- Toilet paper
- Shampoo and conditioner
During the new school year, we look for kid friendly lunch box food items so that all the children in the Conejo Valley are able to go to school with a healthy, filling lunch each day of the week. Along with donating some of our high priority items, you can also hold a back to school food drive. Many schools in the area love to help with food drives. Ask your local school to see if they can help with a back to school food drives to help feed everyone in the local community.
All of the donated food helps benefit school children in many different ways, especially when it comes to breakfast. Not only do children who eat breakfast attend 1.5 more days of school each year, but they also score 17.5 percent higher on math tests. Children who eat breakfast are also 20 percent more likely to graduate high school.
For more information on organizing your own food drive to help everyone in your local community,
download the Food Drive Toolkit. With many facts and figures about food drives, as well as coordinator instructions and check list, we make it easy to do your part in feeding the local community.
For more ways that you can give back to your community,
contact Conejo Valley Food Bank Manna, located in Thousand Oaks. We help more than 1,400 people in need in the Conejo Valley each month, almost completely through donations since we are not federally funded in any way.
