Canning Hunger

1. Pick up your Canning Hunger bags and information cards during a weekend service.
2. Visit ten nearby neighbors.
3. Invite them to donate non-perishable food items or basic household essentials.
4. Return the donated items to your campus during the designated collection weekend.
5. Our volunteer teams will receive your donations at convenient outdoor drop-off locations.

Where to Drop Off Donations
To simplify the process, all food donations will be collected outside each campus. Volunteers will unload your vehicle and load donations directly into trucks and vans for delivery to local food pantries on Monday morning. Food will not be brought inside church buildings.

Each campus will have clearly marked outdoor collection areas with A-frame signs directing traffic to designated drop-off locations.

Drive up, remain in your vehicle if you’d like, and our volunteers will unload your donations for you.

Canning Hunger is a “double-impact” outreach strategy that helps fight local hunger while creating meaningful connections with the people who live around you.

This low-pressure, door-to-door initiative gives you a simple reason to connect with your neighbors, build relationships, and serve your community in a tangible way.

What Does “Double Impact” Mean?
Canning Hunger is more than a food drive. It’s an opportunity to create two lasting kinds of impact every time you participate.

1. Fight Hunger in a Tangible Way - By collecting non-perishable food and household essentials from your neighbors, you’re helping meet real needs in your own community. Every donation stays local and is distributed through trusted food pantries serving families, children, college students, and individuals experiencing food insecurity.

2. Build Bridges with Your Neighbors - Every knock on a door creates an opportunity for connection. Whether you meet someone for the first time or reconnect with someone you’ve waved to for years, Canning Hunger creates natural opportunities for conversation, trust, and community.

Sometimes the greatest gift isn’t the can of food. It’s learning your neighbor’s name.

Why It Matters
The beauty of Canning Hunger is its double impact.

You help meet physical needs while creating opportunities for meaningful relationships.

You bless your city while strengthening your own neighborhood.

You demonstrate the love of Jesus through practical generosity and intentional presence.

Why It Works
It’s natural. Asking neighbors to help feed local families is a simple, comfortable conversation.

It’s relational. Every doorstep is an opportunity to meet someone new or deepen an existing relationship.

It’s local. Every donation remains in the community where it was collected.

Each campus partners with a local organization serving its own community.

▪️St. Charles/South Elgin: Food for Greater Elgin & South Elgin Food Pantry
▪️Streamwood: Hanover Township Food Pantry
▪️DeKalb: NIU Student Food Pantry
▪️Huntley: Grafton Food Pantry
▪️Aurora: Aurora Interfaith Food Pantry
▪️Joliet: St. John Lutheran Food Pantry

Every donation stays local.

Two ways to help collect:
1. Serve on the weekends helping load trucks with donations.
2. Serve on Monday morning delivering donations to local pantries.