1 in 5 Americans don’t know where their next meal is coming from—last year it was 1 in 8. With more than 250 orchestras representing all 50 states, Orchestras Feeding America 2009 was the single largest orchestra project serving communities nationwide, collecting over 200,000 pounds of food for local communities. This year, we hope to do even better!
Here are just a few ideas from orchestras who participated last year:
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra made arrangements for concertgoers and members of the public to bring non-perishable canned and packaged food to bins located throughout the Woodruff Arts Center campus, clinics, and libraries. There were approximately 10 collection sites across the City of Atlanta!
The Central Ohio Symphony included ideas for their drive in a blog. You can check it out here! The Symphony now has very close relationship with People in Need who are completing a capital campaign which has resulted in big improvements to those they serve!
The Oklahoma City Philharmonic partnered with the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma who suggested setting a goal before starting their drive. They also coordinated their drive with other orchestras in their area including their university, youth, and community orchestras. In the end, the Oklahoma City Phil successfully brought in over 22,000 pounds of food!
The Orchestra of Southern Utah offered free tickets to families who came with food items and advertised the drive on their concert poster.
We’ll be sending more ideas from other orchestras throughout the food drive. If you have ideas for this year or ideas that worked for your orchestra last year, please send them to Margaret at fooddrive@americanorchestras.org.
Sign up here to be officially added to our list of participating orchestras!
If you have any questions about this year’s drive, please contact Margaret at fooddrive@americanorchestras.org.
Posted January 14, 2010
