Ending hunger one bag at a time
"I can do that!"
One method we use to register donors is a booth at a music festival or farmers market.
Our team holds up a green bag and asks "Would you fill this bag and put it on your porch? so that we can take it to a local food pantry?"
We hear "I can do that!" all the time.
The reason is because people want to help, they just aren't sure how. We are all busy. Simple Gesture has two break through advantages; 1) it's easy, and 2) it feels good (you'll know what we mean when you do it a couple times).
It is as easy as 1-2-3:
- Register. Just click the link at the top, takes about 90 seconds.
- Wait for an email or text asking if you'll have a bag on your doorstep (or if you'll bring a bag into a central location) on the event day.
- Volunteers pick it up and take it to a pantry or food bank in your community.
What We Do
Sustainable Impact
We operate high scale recurring food drives. It may not sound like much but programs like this brought in nearly 5 million pounds of food last year.
Food Insecurity is getting worse, the existing programs can not keep up. There is an untapped solution that can change the game. That solution is simply 'us'. Rather than relying on the government or big industry to throw money at the problem, what if we just step up and help?
We have 15 years of data that shows communities that run well organized recurring food drives, especially those that pick up food at households, are tremendously successful. Here are some facts;
- There are over 120 of these programs, but they only cover about 1% of the US population.
- More than a dozen have exceeded 10% participation from households in their community.
- Last year the provided about 5 million pounds of food
- If we reached just 5% of the total households and expanded this nationwide the total annual collection would be over 675 million pounds of food, that's over $1.5 Billion Dollars in value.
SUSTAINED IMPACT: We already know as many as 30% of households will put a bag on their porch, it's happening right now in Ashland, OR. That program's been going for 15 years, and it keeps growing.
Neighbors don't get tired of helping neighbors. When someone joins the program and leaves out that first bag they are going to notice something, the feeling of doing a good thing. That food will end up on someone's table in a few days. The
Join us!
Hunger and Food Insecurity are growing problems. We need innovative solutions to make a big impact, and we need them now.
The answer is about as simple as it gets; its us. Neighbors helping neighbors has been around for centuries. Nearly all of us have extra food we can share, and nearly all of us want to help. But how? In today's busy it's not so simple to share that extra food. That's where we come in. We believe if we can make it simple, that people will rise up and help out those that aren't as fortunate.
Now it is as easy as 1-2-3;
- Register on JoinSG.org
- Leave a bag of food on your doorstep
- Volunteer drivers take it to your local food pantry where it gets to those that need it most.
We can do 10 times more with financial support
Many of you donate money to food pantries, they in turn use those dollars to buy food. They are good at it, and convert $100 into around $260 of food.
The problem is, once that food is consumed it’s gone and another $100 is needed.
What if we could build a food machine that keeps on providing food?
That is SimpleGesture.org. And as a result, we can turn that same $100 into about $3800 of food!
This sounds impossible, but it's true and easy to explain. Our approach is to make it easy for households to provide targeted high nutrition food at no cost. The food and the logistics are all donated by others. The only cost is to run the system and find more donors.
The average donor stays active about 5 years, donates around 70% of the time, provides about 14 pounds per donation, and the average value of that food is around $2.20 a pound. When you add all that up you can see that just one donor results in about $700 of food. Your donations help us find these donors, buy the reusable bags, run the systems, and do everything else needed.
If you'd like to donate, we can promise your money will make a big difference. Click here to donate!!
The Three Programs
We offer 3 programs to operate recurring food drives.
DONOR/DRIVER:
- Donors and Drivers register on JoinSG.org.
- Donors and Drivers confirm their participation by replying yes or not to a text/email sent by our system.
- Our web app pools them into “least mile” routes.
- Drivers receive their route on their smart phones and follow turn-by-turn directions to complete their route.
- The food stays local. A small event supplies one pantry or Food Bank and larger ones can fill shelves at dozens of sites.
NEIGHBORHOODS:
- The Donor/Driver program registers donors, as we see them form clusters we transition them into a neighborhood.
- One of the Drivers volunteers to switch over and be a “Neighborhood Coordinator” to handle that cluster of donors.
- The Neighborhood Coordinator uses a custom QR code and email link to spread the word to other neighbors.
- Neighbors confirm their participation by replying yes or not to a text/email sent by our system.
- The Neighborhood Coordinator and their helpers pick up the food and take it to nearby Food Banks and Pantries.
COMMUNITY CIRCLES:
- Rather than food being picked up at a doorstep, this program organizes donors to bring food to a central location.
- Church’s, Schools, Businesses, HOA’s, and others with a central location sign up their donor base.
- Donors reply “yes” or “no” if they will bring a bag of food to a specific location on a given date/time.
- The food is collected and delivered to a nearby Food Bank or Pantry.
Learn more by contacting us at Info@SimpleGesture.org!
The SG WEB APP
Route Optimization
Driver Communication
Donor Communication
Making things simple can be complicated. One way to do it is to”least mile routing“ for the drivers picking up the food donations. We use the same technology as UPS, FedEx and other world-class fleet programs.
Donor Communication
Driver Communication
Donor Communication
Every Donor is asked before every event if they can participate. A quick click of a button confirms they will have a bag out, or if we need to skip them this time around.
Driver Communication
Driver Communication
Driver Communication
About one in 6 donors agree to drive during the registration process. A day before the event they receive their routes. Each route has a button for ‘turn by turn“ directions. The Event Manager can monitor progress across all drivers real-time and make adjustments if needed.
Campaigns
Help Guides
Driver Communication
Signing up donors is everything. Chapters create “sign-up campaigns”. We provide a Site Page dedicated to each one. These are customized to reflect the ‘grass roots local information” donors want to see. QR codes and URL links provide quick tools for donors to access the Campaign Pages.
Reporting
Help Guides
Help Guides
The ASG Web App tracks data to help make better decisions. Event Managers can see which Campaigns were most effective, which donors leave out bags and which often forget. And we provide tools to fix these problems as they arise.
Help Guides
Help Guides
Help Guides
Donors, Drivers, and Chapter Administrators get “Quick-Start Guides” along with more detailed guides to cover everything. We even use AI tools to answer any questions.
Proud to be sponsored by one of the great food companies in the world!
