If you have any questions at all or need assistance, please email: andrep@foodbank.bc.ca .

Option 1: Organization. Select this option if you are looking to start a fundraiser through your organization, club, group or within your company. 

Option 2: Individual Fundraiser. Select this option if you are starting a personal fundraiser. This could even be a birthday fundraiser, a fundraiser in memory of a loved one, or a fundraiser in lieu of wedding gifts. The options are limitless!

Option 3: Start a New Team. Select this option if you are setting up a friendly competition within your company or between organizations.

For example, your company has three floors, and you want to set up a competition between the floors; each floor will get a dedicated page to track their progress, in addition to an overall company page where you can see the result of the three floors combined.

This option would also work on a group of friends. You and your friends might want to start a friendly competition to see who can raise the most money within a certain time frame. Winner gets eternal bragging rights!

Email us at andrep@foodbank.bc.ca if you want to brainstorm fundraising ideas!

Option 4: Join a Team. Select this option if you know that someone from your company or organization has already set up a "team" page. For example, if you are on the fourth floor (see option 3 for context), and would like to join the company-wide competition after the other three floors are set up, you can select this option and join the competition.

Food Banks BC and the Greater Vancouver Food Bank (GVFB) have partnered to create this Virtual Food Drive platform to help raise funds for all Food Banks BC members.

A Virtual Food Drive allows individuals and groups of all kinds to raise money through an online food drive. It's a very efficient way to maximize your fundraising efforts. It's also easy and fun! Start one with your co-workers at the office, as a family project or with a group of friends as passionate about our cause as you are.

Maybe you're having a birthday or wedding and would like your guests to donate in lieu of gifts. You can use a Virtual Food Drive to encourage donations to raise funds for a food bank in your community.

Hosting a Virtual Food Drive lets you or your group get involved with providing people in BC with access to healthy food, in an easy, immediate and highly effective way.

• In 2022 food bank visits have increased by 31%, from 124,000 to 163,000 visits/year
• Approximately 3.1% of the BC population visited a food bank in 2022.
• 30% of all food bank users in BC are children - over 53,000.  
• The number of seniors (65+ years) accessing food banks has increased by 20% in the past 2 years.

Below are some benefits of running a Virtual Food Drive event:

• Easy to use and manage.
• It's the greenest, most cost-effective, simple and secure way of all food drives.
• It can be a meaningful team-building activity to boost morale while challenging one another between offices or floors in your workplace.
• It highlights your group or company's commitment in helping the community by hosting a branded VFD.
• Donations can be completed within minutes.
• It's a great idea to commemorate special moments in life such as birthdays or weddings by fundraising and making a real impact.
• You may use any major credit card for payment on a secure website.
• It saves food banks time and resources incurred by a physical food drive.
• Your donations allow food banks to purchase the most needed and freshest items.
• All donations made through the Virtual Food Drive are tax-deductible and you will receive an instant tax receipt via email.

Anyone can host a Virtual Food Drive. You can register as an organization, individual, start your own team or join an existing team. Your event can be customized to meet the needs of your organization, your school or office group, your family, or yourself. Click here to start your Virtual Food Drive today.

Below are some benefits of running a Virtual Food Drive event:

• Easy to use and manage.
• It's the greenest, most cost-effective, simple and secure way of all food drives.
• It can be a meaningful team-building activity to boost morale while challenging one another between offices or floors in your workplace.
• It highlights your group or company's commitment in helping the community by hosting a branded VFD.
• Donations can be completed within minutes.
• It's a great idea to commemorate special moments in life such as birthdays or weddings by FUNdraising and making a real impact.
• You may use any major credit card for payment on a secure website.
• It saves food banks time and resources incurred by a physical food drive.
• Your donations allow food banks to purchase the most needed and freshest items.
• All donations made through the Virtual Food Drive are tax-deductible and you will receive an instant tax receipt via email.

The Virtual Food Drive website gets "refreshed" every year on July 1st. If your Virtual Food Drive page was set up prior to July 2023, your page may have been archived and we suggest you to host a new Virtual Food Drive for this year here.

Your username and password from before for accessing your page remains valid. If you cannot remember your username or password, recover your username first, then recover your password here. Note you have to use the same email you've used previously to recover your username and password.

Or just contact us. We will be happy to help: andrep@foodbank.bc.ca.

It's important that you make your own personal donation to kick start your campaign. Lead by example, the amount of the first donation will set the bar for others to follow. Others generally feel more comfortable donating if they see that someone else has.

We value all donations, but if your gift is generous, your coworkers, friends and family will likely be generous with their donation as well!

+ Add a video – This can be linked on your personal Virtual Food Drive page or your Teams page.  
+ Make a personal donation to kick off your fundraiser – It's important that you make your own personal donation to kick start your campaign. Lead by example, the amount of the first donation will set the bar for others to follow. Others generally feel more comfortable donating if they see that someone else has.
+ Ask – Make a personal appeal to your friends and family. Use the tools inside the Participant Center to send emails or just share your page link via your own personal email.
+ Make sure donors share their support – In your requests, ask donors to click the 'Share' button on your personal page. When donors share their donation, about 20% of the time it results in a new donation of $15 on average!
+ Get a match – Ask your employer if they would make a generous 'matching gift' of the total amount or portion raised.
+ Leverage the reach of social media – Post your campaign on all your social media platforms - share your Virtual Food Drive on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and any other social media you use.
+ Include everyone in your campaign – Be proud to raise funds for the Greater Vancouver Food Bank and invite everyone to help. Include friends, family, work colleagues, teammates, club members – anyone. Most people understand how important the work of the Greater Vancouver Food Bank is, and some may even know someone who has used a food bank before. You may be surprised at who will donate to support you.
+ Follow up – It is easy for people to overlook emails. They are probably not ignoring you. Send at least one follow-up email and repost on your social media to keep your campaign in front of followers.
+ Thank donors – Thanking your donors in a timely manner will show them how much you appreciate their support to your fundraiser. They might be likely to make a second gift as well!

The Virtual Food Drive is a fun, engaging and ideal way to impact the well-being of your community with your family, friends and colleagues in supporting food banks across BC. The funds you raise are used by the food bank you selected to purchase healthy and nutritious food for the ever increasing number of people accessing food banks across BC. Food choices selected at checkout are representational and do not neccessarily mean that these actual foods will be purchased.

You can send cheques to the Food Banks BC office. Please DO NOT mail your cash donations. Once received, we can add the donation amount from cheques to your Virtual Food Drive total.

Please email andrep@foodbank.bc.ca to request an “Offline Donation Form” and attach it to your cheque donations to ensure your donation is attributed to the correct fundraiser.

Please fill out the “Offline Donation Form” fully and accurately to ensure that tax receipts can be sent to the correct person and address. Please note that for all cheque donations, the minimum donation amount eligible for a tax receipt is $20.

Please bring or mail cheques to:

Food Banks BC - Virtual Food Drive
Suite 302 – 12761 16th Avenue 
Surrey, BC  V4A 1N2 

Payable to: Food Banks BC

Yes! If you want to simply make a donation and not host a fundraiser, you can do so here: https://www.foodbanksbc.com/donate-fund