Salesforce Dallas Food Drive Competition

The Salesforce Dallas Food Drive competition is organized and administered by The Pack Shack. Before COVID-19, The Pack Shack hosted crazy fun Feed the Funnel parties to pack thousands of meals for local nonprofits across the country. Since COVID-19 started, The Pack Shack has innovated to continue to supply provisions and opportunities for our neighbors in need. This food drive is a great example of that innovation! Thanks for participating and inviting others to do the same!

This is a competition between the five teams through October 23rd! Does your team have what it takes to win? You'll need the will, the generosity, and the understanding that what you do will make an immediate, tangible difference in the lives of many individuals and households who need some help right now. You can donate more than once, so check the leaderboards often (updated in realtime). You can also invite others to support your team, so share your team's unique fundraiser URL with family, friends, and neighbors!

Suggested donations: 

• $12 = 3 jars of peanut butter & 3 cans of tuna
• $20 = 5 jars of peanut butter & 5 cans of tuna
• $52 = 13 jars of peanut butter & 13 cans of tuna

If your team raises $1,000, your nonprofit will receive 250 jars of peanut butter and 250 cans of tuna! But you don't have to stop there! You have four other teams to beat!

Here's why we're doing this:

Because of COVID-19, the number of people who are food insecure in the United States has risen from 35 million to 54 million people, including an estimated 18 million children. And this increase disproportionately impacts people of color, women, and children. Learn more here.

In the 13 counties served by the North Texas Food Bank, an estimated 20% of people are food insecure. “Food insecurity has become even more critical during the COVID-19 pandemic, with many children not having access to meals during the last few months of the school year or throughout the summer,” said Larry Hughes, Zone Vice President for 7-Eleven.

The North Texas Food Bank in Plano and the Tarrant Area Food Bank have both reported that 40% of people receiving food assistance during the pandemic are doing so for the first time. In May, researchers believe that the food insecurity rate in Texas reached a staggering 27%, up from 15% in 2018, and has been directly attributed to the COVID-19 crisis. A nonprofit in McKinney points to recent numbers from the USDA that "conservatively estimates that there are more than 100,000 Collin County residents who currently do not have enough to eat, including at least 40,000 Collin County children who go to bed hungry each night."

Dallas County is seriously impacted by hunger. The rate of food insecurity in Dallas County is 47% higher than the national average. Some additional statistics that affect Dallas County include:

• 1 in every 10 people in Dallas County has diabetes.
• 1 in 5 people in Dallas County don’t have health insurance. This is one of the highest rates for a major city in the country.
• The top ten Dallas area zip codes where families and kids have difficulty accessing adequate meals are: 75203, 75211, 75116, 75237, 75216, 75210, 75141, 75172, 75126, and 75159 (see map).

“We know that the impact of COVID-19 on those that we serve will be long-standing, especially the most vulnerable populations that work paycheck to paycheck, so we expect to be operating at an elevated capacity for quite some time,” said Erica Yaeger of the North Texas Food Bank.

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Local area nonprofits benefitting from this food drive include: