Maximize Your Impact: Why Oregon Food Bank Encourages Fund Drives

October 29th 2025

We believe everyone deserves access to fresh, nourishing food — no matter where we live, where we’re from or the color of our skin. More than a million people facing hunger seek food assistance through the Oregon Food Bank Network each year — and we distribute upwards of 80 million meals worth of food to rural, urban, remote and suburban communities alike.

Hunger is not caused by a lack of food, but by a lack of access. We know we cannot end hunger for good through food sourcing and distribution alone; we need true food justice. With our scale and scope, Oregon Food Bank is focused on the most effective strategies to address hunger in our communities. While food drives can be a marvelous way of introducing people to the cause of ending hunger, we need to prioritize ways of giving that will have the greatest impact on our neighbors experiencing hunger.

We are so grateful to the members of our community who have come together for many years to fight hunger with food drives. To end hunger for good, we need true food justice. This will take more than food drives.

At this time, we are not facilitating small, individual food drives.

Instead, we focus on:

Working with food industry partners to secure large-volume food donations or purchasing culturally-relevant, nutrient-dense food (pantry staples as well as fresh and frozen produce, meat and dairy).
Organizing community and advocating for legislative change that addresses the root causes of hunger, including poverty and inequity.
Building equitable food systems by increasing access to land for farming and resources for local food production.
Educating communities about the true story of hunger and how to take effective action to realize resilient communities that never know hunger.

To make a gift, please visit OregonFoodBank.org/Give.

You can learn more about getting more involved at OregonFoodBank.org/Get-Involved

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Oregon Food Bank prioritizing fund drives?

Hunger in Oregon is caused not by a lack of food, but by a lack of access. To end hunger for good, we need true food justice. Fund drives support the range of programs we undertake to end hunger today and for good — from food sourcing and redistribution to advocacy, education and more.

But isn’t food still important?

Yes! However, fund drives and financial donations allow us to leverage our purchasing power to make each dollar donated go further — purchasing food in large quantities that is most needed in our communities, including culturally appropriate and nutritious foods. Small food drives generate small quantities of inconsistent product, which are actually more costly for Oregon Food Bank to process and redistribute. For some of our partners in the Oregon Food Bank Network (consisting of 21 regional food banks and 1,200+ pantries), this activity is helpful but Oregon Food Bank operates at a different scale.

How does it make sense for a food bank to not accept food donations?

We source and redistribute approximately 50 million pounds of food annually — a lot of that comes from private donors in food manufacturing, retail, agriculture and other food-related industries. We have staff with expertise in food safety, compliance and the products our partners require to address the needs of our community. These colleagues focus on securing food donations by the truckload. In this way, we're able to provide nourishing food to hundreds of thousands of families in rural, suburban and urban centers in every corner of our region.

If not a food drive, how can I help end hunger in my community?

There are many ways to get involved and have a meaningful impact in our community:

Host a Fund Drive. We’ve developed a Fundraising Toolkit to allow you to easily share your own story and spread the word with your community!
Sign up for advocacy alerts to help pass anti-hunger legislation
Set up a workplace Matching Gift program
Volunteer at our locations or at a partner agency

I work in the food industry. Can you accept my donation of food/supplies?

There are some cases in which Oregon Food Bank can accept food and supplies donations from individuals and businesses — including farmers, manufacturers and wholesalers.

Please visit this page or call 503-419-4166 to share the details about the items you would like to donate.
For grocery partners: please contact us to learn more about our Fresh Alliance program, which connects grocery stores with local food assistance organizations that can accept surplus food.
If you have a point of contact at Oregon Food Bank, you can reach out to them directly

I’d like to fundraise for Oregon Food Bank. How can I host an online fundraiser?

We’ve developed a Fundraising Toolkit to allow you to easily share your own story and spread the word with your community!

I need support setting up my online fundraising page. Who can I contact?

Connect with our team at CommunityGiving@OregonFoodBank.org for further guidance or fill out our Community Giving Form to share other ideas or thoughts for your fundraising efforts.

My office/organization/team/event initially wanted to host a food drive. How can I make the switch to a fund drive?

Well done, you! Use our Fundraising Toolkit to adapt your plans. That resource contains a host of helpful tips and ideas!

Can I donate by cash/check?

Yes! Please send all donations to one of the following Oregon Food Bank locations:

Portland: 7900 NE 33rd Dr, Portland, OR 97211
Beaverton: 1870 NW 173rd Ave, Beaverton, OR 97006

For a tax receipt, please include the following information:

Check(s): Full Name, Mailing Address
Cash: Full Name, Mailing Address, Specify Cash Amount

If we’ve already hosted a food drive and want to drop the food off with you, will you accept that?

Our OFB Food Resource hotline can determine if the food you’ve collected meets our community’s needs. You can reach them at 503-419-4166. We are unable to pick up food donations from community food drives at this time. You can reach out to local food assistance sites near you to see if they’re accepting food donations.

Can you point me to an agency that’s currently supporting food drives?

The needs of each pantry, meal site and regional food bank fluctuate regularly. Therefore, your neighborhood pantry or food assistance site may be collecting food donations. We encourage you to reach out to them directly to see if that is something they need at this time.