Your guide to fun-filled activities that’ll raise food and funds to help take hunger off the table for vulnerable Victorians.
Welcome!
Thanks so much for getting your school on board to raise food and funds as part of our FoodBoost campaign this year.
Your wonderful commitment is going to help take hunger off the table of people and families who are struggling to survive as the cost of living continues to skyrocket.
Recently Paul McDonald, Anglicare Victoria’s CEO, told me that more people and families than ever before are coming to our Emergency Relief centres in crisis. Alarmingly, having no food is the number one reason they’re turning to us.
That’s why the food and funds you raise over the next eight weeks are so important.
Your school will help us stock our pantries and keep our food vans full and on-the-road, so when hungry people come to us, we’ll have the food they need to make it through the toughest times.
While this is a vitally important cause, your school’s food and fundraising activities should be super-fun! This booklet is jam-packed with food and fundraising ideas designed to get your school community excited and into the FoodBoost spirit. And, you’ll see we’ve included a few ways to inspire a little healthy competition to boost motivation – and donations!
We can’t wait to see how your school gets involved – and don’t forget to share all your activities with our awesome community on social media #AVFoodBoost #BetterTogether #AVSchoolsPartnership #TakeHungerOffTheTable
Happy food and fundraising!
Warmest regards,
Penny Mitchell Relationship Manager – Corporate & Schools Partnerships
@anglicarevictoria
anglicare-victoria
Rice
Most needed items
Instant coffee
Spreads (peanut butter, jam, Vegemite)
Canned fish (tuna/salmon)
Crackers (dry biscuits)
Sweet 2-minutebiscuitsnoodles
Pasta
Cannedsauce meat (Spam or meat stews)
Canned soup (or pouches)
Pasta
UHT long-life milk / non-dairy milk
Breakfast cereal
Tinned fruit (or fruit cups)
Condiments (tomato sauce, soy sauce, mustard)
Canned vegetables (tinned tomatoes, potatoes, corn, mixed vegetables)
Snacks for adults and/or children (muesli bars, nuts, chips)
You’re helping to take hunger off the table for people like Marlena*
Sole-parent Marlena can usually make ends meet from payday to payday, but things began to unravel recently when all three of her children came down with the flu and two needed to go to hospital.
Like the vast majority of people who come to Anglicare Victoria for help, Marlena had no safety net and no savings. The cost of medication, along with the petrol she needed to travel back and forth to the hospital meant Marlena was stretched beyond her limits and had no money left over to buy food. That’s when she turned to us.
“The family was at a point where they had nothing,” recounts Jessica, who worked with Marlena at one of our nine emergency relief centres. “It wasn’t even a choice of who will eat – Marlena or the kids. They had no food for the next day.”
Thanks to our generous supporters, we were able to provide Marlena with a food parcel, supermarket vouchers and petrol vouchers to see her through this difficult time.
“I was so relieved to get that help,” says Marlena. “That food meant my kids could eat that week, and I could eat. I don’t know what I would have done without it.”
*Name and identifying details have been changed to protect identity. Image is representative only.
Quickstart guide:
Sign up
Let us know your school is joining the network of awesome schools across Victoria participating in FoodBoost during May and June. Register and download helpful resources at: www.anglicarevic.org.au/foodboost
Spread the word
Put up your FoodBoost poster; engage teachers and student leaders and help them understand why we’re raising food and funds; make announcements in assemblies and get classrooms talking about which activities they want to do. Initiate a little friendly rivalry going between classes (and schools - see page 7) to add some fun. You may also like to email your school community to announce your FoodBoost activities, or take to social media to get donations of food and funds flowing.
Start food and fundraising!
Ensure students know which day/s to bring donations and communicate with parents asking them to support their children’s donations – and make their own.
Feel good :)
Announce your results to the whole school and parent community, and let them know how their time and effort will help people in need across Victoria this winter. 1 2 3 4
Food-raising fun
With your support we can take hunger off the table for people in need, so it’s time to get creative and get involved!
We’ve come up with a few food-raising ideas to kickstart your imagination. Feel free to adapt and change them to suit your students, their various age groups, their interests and abilities. Most importantly, choose activities that’ll get your school community excited and have a ball while doing something genuinely impactful.
Can-tastic Creatures
Each class collects as many cans of food as possible. Then they compete to create the best can-tastic creature.
From dinosaurs to Pokémon, race cars to unicorns, there’s no limit to what you CAN create.
The more cans you collect, the bigger your creation and the bigger your impact.
Award prizes for the most can-tastical creations and most cans collected.
Package Portraits
You’ve heard of spaghetti art, well this activity asks students to take it to the next level!
Students bring along packaged food items and then arrange them to make pictures – the greater variety of foods they bring along, the more fabulous their ‘palette’. Think red packs of lentils, contrasting with yellow packs of noodles and white rice packs for highlights – you get the idea.
Classes can create portraits of their teachers, recreate great artworks (Mona Lisa anyone?) or go abstract – the choice is theirs.
Award prizes for the best package portrait and most food collected.
Food Train
Which class (or year level) will make the longest food train?
Each group collects their food items, then it’s time to lay the items end to end on the school oval, gym or local park to see whose food train is the longest. The more food laid end-to-end the more food to help beat hunger in Victoria.
Can the Classroom, Cupboard or Chapel
For someone who’s hungry or experiencing food insecurity, nothing brings more joy than seeing a full cupboard.
Your school can recreate that joyful feeling by designating a space for students to fill with cans. See if your school CAN fill every square inch of the space with cans or create a can-maze so you can walk through it. The more cans, the more people will have food on their tables this winter.
Are you up for the challenge?
The current record for longest Food Train is held by Carey Baptist Grammar School’s Junior Campus.
Last year, students laid down an incredible 2,149 food items end-to-end on their oval to form Anglicare Victoria’s longest ever Food Train!
This phenomenal train measured an impressive half-a-kilometre in length.
Fun fact
Did you know that a box of cereal is longer if laid down from opposite corners instead of top to bottom?
Can your school smash the record to become the new title-holder?
Fabulous fundraising
Fundraising is vitally important to help us provide essentials to people in need in Victoria.
We simply couldn’t provide the level of support we do without the funds raised by kind people like you and your school community.
Take a little inspiration from these fab fundraising ideas or get creative and go your own way to raise funds and help ease the burden for vulnerable people this winter.
Twice as good
There’s nothing like sharing a meal. Let’s bring this idea to life by holding a sausage sizzle, bake sale or canteen lunch day. When students purchase an item or meal, ask them to donate the equivalent amount of money to FoodBoost, and (in spirit) share that meal with someone in need.
Supporter Spotlight:
You don’t have to do just one fun thing to get your FoodBoost food drive going!
Camberwell Girls Grammar School ran a monthlong food drive, AND had a member of our Anglicare Victoria team come out to the school to talk about food insecurity for young people, AND on the final day had a super-fun Pyjama Day!
Parent power
Ask students to talk about the cost of living crisis with their parents. If parents would like to get involved, they can add a supermarket gift card to their trolley next time they shop. These grocery gift cards allow vulnerable people to choose their own groceries to suit their dietary needs and preferences.
Winter sleepout
Get the older kids involved for a chance to experience what it might be like to ‘sleep rough’. Arrange a supervised sleepout in the school gym, quadrangle, oval or carpark before they are ‘moved on’ in the morning (i.e. get to go home!). Have them reach out to their family and local community to raise money to help feed the homeless. To reward them for their bravery, arrange a fry-up the next morning for a chance to talk about their night with parents.
Give it up
While it’s not the same as going hungry, this can give students an insight into ‘going without’.
Ask students to select one food item that they will give up. It might be foregoing sugar for a day, skipping their favourite beverage for a week or dropping the junk food for a month. Get them to organise sponsors and donate the proceeds to FoodBoost so more people in need can receive the support they need this Winter.
INTER-SCHOOL CHALLENGE
Why not add a little healthy competition to the FUNdraising?
At your school, different year levels or homerooms can compete against each other. Turn FoodBoost into an inter-house challenge and have each house compete to collect the most food, or raise the most money. Then ALL students unite to be added to our inter-school leader board, to compete for the overall title of ‘FoodBoost Winners’!
While it’s tonnes of fun, this campaign provides students with engaging and meaningful ways to get involved with their communities, to learn and make a positive impact in the lives of many. For more information about entry and award categories, please contact us.
FAQs
What types of food should we collect?
We have included a handy shopping list of the most needed items. Remember, that all donations must be non-perishable and not require refrigeration. Slightly dented cans are accepted, but please ensure packets are properly sealed (no holes) and all food is still within the use-by date. With funds raised Anglicare Victoria will buy fresh fruit and vegetables to supplement this.
Do you have drop-off locations, or can you collect from our school?
Yes we do have drop-off locations and would be most grateful for this extra effort! We are also happy to pick up from your school for larger donations. Please contact us to arrange drop-off or pick-up.
How should we store the food we collect? Are paper bags ok?
Green supermarket bags or re-usable plastic bags are preferred. Cardboard boxes and crates are easy to move (we will return any plastic crates you use). Paper
bags often can’t hold the weight of your generosity!
Can parents help? How?
Yes they can! They can spread the FoodBoost word to their workplaces and social groups. We desperately need drivers to help us collect the food. Contact us for more information.
We don’t have a fundraising page but want to contribute funds. How do we do this?
Many schools include us in their assemblies and chapel services or “pass the hat around” at school functions. If you would like to nominate Anglicare Victoria as your chosen charity, we will send you our details.
We can’t participate this semester – can we still help later in the year?
Food insecurity is a year-round issue and we would be delighted to accept your donations at any time. Later in the year you may also be interested in participating in our Christmas Toy & Food Appeal.
We’re here to answer all your FoodBoost questions – no matter how
Penny Mitchell Relationship Manager Corporate & Schools Partnerships
P: 03 9412 6168
E: partnerships@anglicarevic.org.au
or
Please
Digital Toolkit
This toolkit is designed for schools and workplaces taking part in FoodBoost. It makes it easy to share your involvement with your community in a clear, respectful and on-brand way.
You do not need to use everything in this toolkit. Even one post or mention helps build community momentum and awareness.
How to use this toolkit
Use the copy as-is or tailor it to your voice
Choose the channels that suit your organisation (social, newsletter, email)
You are not expected to fundraise publicly unless you choose to
Sharing participation is optional but encouraged
FoodBoost is about community action and care, not pressure or targets.
Key messages to keep in mind
FoodBoost is a practical way to take action on food security
It brings people together around care, kindness, and community
It is supported by Anglicare Victoria’s frontline services Participation can be scaled to suit your context
Social media
These copy blocks are suitable for LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
Version 1 - General
This winter, we’re taking part in FoodBoost, supporting @Anglicare Victoria’s emergency relief services and people doing it tough.
It’s a simple way for our community to take practical action on food security.
Version 2 - Workplace-friendly
Our team is taking part in FoodBoost this winter. It’s a practical way to support people doing it tough - while bringing our workplace together around a shared cause.
Version 3 - School-friendly
Our school is taking part in FoodBoost this winter, helping students learn about kindness, care, and community while supporting people doing it tough.
Hashtags
#AVFoodBoost #TakeHungerOffTheTable
#CommunityAction #AVFoodBoostPartner2026
#BetterTogether
Mid-campaign momentum posts
These help normalise participation and show community involvement.
Version 1
We’re proud to be taking part in FoodBoost this winter.
Small actions can make a real difference when communities come together to help take hunger off the table.
Version 2
FoodBoost is reminding us how powerful community action can be.
Thank you to everyone supporting this initiative. and helping address food insecurity in our community.
Thank-you/wrap-up posts
Version 1 - community/workplace
Thank you to everyone who supported our FoodBoost activity this winter.
Together, we helped support Anglicare Victoria’s emergency relief services and take hunger off the table for people experiencing food insecurity.
Version 2 - School-friendly
Thank you to our school community for supporting FoodBoost this winter.
It’s been a great example of kindness and care in action, helping support people experiencing food insecurity.
Newsletter copy
Suitable for school newsletters, workplace intranets or internal updates.
Short version
This winter, our organisation is taking part in FoodBoost, an Anglicare Victoria initiative supporting people experiencing food insecurity.
FoodBoost brings communities together to take practical action and help take hunger off the table across Victoria.
Extended Version
We’re proud to be taking part in FoodBoost, a community initiative led by Anglicare Victoria.
FoodBoost gives schools and workplaces a practical way to support people experiencing food insecurity, while bringing communities together around care and kindness.
Email/eDM copy
These blocks can be used for staff emails, parent communications, or internal updates.
Subject line options
We’re taking part in FoodBoost this winter
Our community is showing up this winter with Foodboost
FoodBoost: a simple way to turn care into action this winter
Email body - short
This winter, we’re taking part in FoodBoost, supporting Anglicare Victoria’s emergency relief services.
FoodBoost is a practical way for our community to take action on food insecurity and help take hunger off the table.
Email body - longer
We’re pleased to let you know that we’re taking part in FoodBoost this winter.
FoodBoost is an Anglicare Victoria initiative that brings schools and workplaces together to support people experiencing food insecurity.
It’s a practical and positive way for our community to help take hunger off the table.
Thank you for supporting this initiative
Creative assets
These assets are designed to be flexible, neutral and easy to use across channels.
Social media tiles - 1080 x 1080
Social/newsletter banners - 1200 x 628
LinkedIn/intranet banner
newsletter banner
Workplace email header
School
A few simple guidelines
Please do
Use the provided copy or visuals
Share in a way that suits your organisation
Keep messaging respectful and values-led
Please avoid
Graphic or distressing imagery
Public fundraising targets or pressure
Modifying logos or core messaging
Thank you for being part of FoodBoost
By taking part and sharing your involvement, you’re helping build awareness, momentum, and community care across Victoria. Every action helps take hunger off the table.
