Food drive point systems you can copy
Pick one of these in the setup, or change any number. Each comes from a drive that published its rules.
| Rules | Points |
|---|---|
| UW-Green Bay departments, 2025 | Hygiene and cleaning 3, canned 2, other food 1 |
| Rival Against Hunger, Iowa, 2025 | 1 per full-size item, a bundle counts once, ranked per student |
| Oswego School District 308 | 1 per item, $1 counts as 8 items, most in all wins, per-student awards too |
| St. Joseph classrooms, 2023 | 5 per item, 20 for bonus items like peanut butter and cereal |
| Gonzaga homerooms, 2018 | Soup 3, baked beans and jelly 2, ramen ½, other 1, double points early |
| Legal Food Frenzy, Virginia, 2025 | 1 per pound, 4 per dollar, cup for the most per person |
| Hunger Heroes, 2024 | 1 per 1.2 pounds, 1 per 50 cents |
| Million Meals in March, 2023 | 5 per pound, 25 per dollar |
Theme days are common too. Buhl High School made peanut butter and jam worth 10 points on its own day. Give any item type a theme day in the setup.
Example: Room 104 brings 1 hygiene item, 30 cans and 12 other items. Under the UW-Green Bay points that is 3 + 60 + 12 = 75 points. With 24 students, that is 3.13 points per student.
Weighing boxes without a warehouse scale
A bathroom or luggage scale is enough. Weigh yourself holding the box, then weigh yourself alone, and type both: 212 - 165 gives 47 pounds. Several boxes add up the same way: 32 + 28.5. Food banks count about 1.2 pounds of food as one meal (Feeding America), so the standings show meals whenever you weigh.
Questions from organizers
How do you score a food drive competition?
Give each class or team a box and agree on the points before day one. The simplest rule is one point per item. Many schools give more points for what the food bank needs most, such as protein, peanut butter or hygiene items. Count the boxes each day, post the standings, and the most points at the end wins.
Should we count items or weigh the food?
Counting by item type lets you reward the most-needed food and suits younger students. Weighing is faster for big drives, and it is how Legal Food Frenzy and Hunger Heroes score: by the pound. A bathroom scale works: weigh yourself holding the box, then without it, and enter the difference, like 212 - 165.
How do we keep it fair between big and small classes?
Rank by points per student: divide each class's points by its number of students. Rival Against Hunger picks its winner this way, and Legal Food Frenzy's state cup goes to the most points per person. Add class sizes in the setup and switch the standings to Per student. Both numbers stay on the printed results.
How many meals does a pound of food make?
Feeding America counts each meal as roughly 1.2 pounds of food. So 120 pounds is about 100 meals. When you weigh the boxes, the tracker shows the meals next to the pounds. It does not guess a weight for counted items, because a can of soup and a box of cereal weigh very different amounts.
Can money donations count?
Yes, if your rules say so. Oswego schools count $1 as 8 items, Legal Food Frenzy gives 4 points per dollar, and The Idaho Foodbank's Million Meals in March gave 25 points per dollar. Turn on money in the setup and set the points per dollar. Money and bonus points are never doubled on double-points days.
What should we not accept?
The Hunger Heroes toolkit, for example, asks for non-perishable food in non-breakable containers, and UW-Green Bay asked for unexpired items. Ask your food bank for its list, then edit the donation rules and most-needed items in the setup so the flyer and box labels say the same. To take points off for an expired item, use a minus number in bonus or penalty points.
Where is our drive saved?
On this device, in this browser, after every change, so you can close the page between counting days. Nothing is uploaded. Two tabs on the same device stay in step. To carry on from another phone or computer, use Move to another device in the setup.
Default most-needed list adapted from the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia's Most Needed Items. Point systems: the rules linked in the table above.