Donate Food and Supplies

Current Items Needed

• Spaghetti Sauce(no glass jars)
• 10 to 12 oz size jars of peanut butter
• Disposables razors
• Regular Size Toothpaste
• Feminine Hygiene Products

Storage Bins

FOOD

If you operate a supermarket, bakery or other business that deals in food, you may have items that you can donate to TASK. These items include day-old bakery items, canned goods, juice boxes and turkeys. If you make an on-going commitment to TASK, we will pick up the items from your store.

An individual or group can run a food drive, collecting any non-perishable food except those in glass containers. Our "wish list" is here.

Turkeys -- These are a mainstay of our day-to-day menu. If you have spare frozen turkeys, we'd love to have them

Bag lunches - These are given to patrons in addition to their mid-day or dinner hot meal. This will be the meal many working patrons take to work with them.

These bags consist of

• either a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (please put peanut butter on both slices of the bread and the jelly in the middle) or a Chef Boyardee (or similar) microwave or canned individual serving of pasta plus a plastic spoon
• fresh or an individual portion of canned fruit
• a dessert
• a box of juice
• and a napkin in a brown mid-day bag.

Your younger children might like to decorate the bags.

We serve as many as 400 people for mid-day and 300 for dinner.

Make as many bags as you can. You can drop these off Monday through Thursday from 8:30AM to 5:00PM and Friday from 8:30AM to 10:00AM. Note the Friday time as it is different from the usual Friday delivery time.

Dinner bags for children -- Every Thursday during dinner, we give each child a dinner bag for Friday.

These bags consist of

• Bumblebee or StarKist Tuna Salad, or Chicken Salad and Crackers, or Chef Boyardee (or similar) microwave or canned individual serving of pasta
• a box of juice
• an individual portion of canned fruit
• a packaged dessert that won't go stale
• a plastic teaspoon
• and a napkin in a brown mid-day bag.

Your younger children might like to decorate the bags.

Make as many bags as you can as this is an on-going need.

Holiday goodies - Your organization can provide homemade cupcakes, brownies or cookies to be distributed on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, or Halloween.  You can deliver them "as made" or you can bag the brownies -- 3 small or 1 large to a bag -- and the cookies -- 5 or 6 to a bag.

SUPPLIES

You can help by donating any of the following:

Annual School Supply Giveaway
Friday August 22
List of School Supplies Needed

Plastic utensils – Wrap plastic fork, knife, & spoon in a napkin and close with a bag tie, a rubber band or a ribbon. PLEASE DO NOT USE TAPE OF ANY KIND!!! Be sure the part of the utensil that goes into the mouth is covered with the napkin. If you use a ribbon, please make it easy to untie.

Note: you have the option of getting the utensils from TASK in boxes of 1000 or supplying them yourself.

We can use as many as you can make.

Hygiene bags – Include toothpaste, toothbrush, men's deodorant, men's disposable razor, soap (Irish Spring, Zest, Coast and Lever 2000 are patron favorites), shampoo, and optionally hand or body lotion in a "ziplock" bag. Full-sized items are preferred but hotel/motel sizes are acceptable.  Men's items are "unisex" for us.

A patron can get a hygiene bag once a month. We can use as many as you can make.

Mini-hygiene bags - Include washcloth, men's disposable razor, and soap (Irish Spring, Zest, Coast and Lever 2000 are patron favorites), in a "ziplock" sandwich bag. Men's razors are "unisex" for us.

When we have enough, we give out a mini-hygiene bag to every patron who attends that meal. We can use as many as you can make.

Socks – Men's white tube or crew socks.  We give these out on an as-needed basis and, when we have enough, every patron in attendance gets a pair.

We can use as many as you can collect.

Winter clothing -- From October to March, we need men's knit watch caps in dark colors (no ski masks), adult gloves for men and women (assorted large sizes), and adult scarves.

Reading glasses of varying strengths. The dollar stores are a good source.

Holiday bags – Your organization can provide a bar of soap, a washcloth and a men's disposable razor in a "Ziplock" sandwich bag to be distributed on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, and Halloween.

Greeting cards -- We keep a supply of greeting cards so that patrons can give them for birthdays, get-well, sympathy, anniversaries, holiday greetings, blank cards and so on. If you have any greeting cards you don't want, we'd love to have them!

Calendars and datebooks -- Please give us your unwanted calendars and datebooks. We give them to patrons beginning in October.

School supplies -- Purchase #2 pencils, pens, spiral-bound notebooks, three-ring binders, backpacks, notebook paper, children's scissors, small box of markers, glue, rulers, composition books (black & white cover) for TASK to give to Trenton school children.

We distribute these on the FOURTH FRIDAY IN AUGUST .

Please drop them off Monday through Thursday from 8:30AM to 5:00PM and Friday from 8:30AM to 1:00PM no later than no later than the Wednesday before the fourth Friday and no sooner than two weeks before the fourth Friday. Unfortunately, we do not have the storage space to collect these year-round.

COMPUTERS

If you have older computers that run Windows XP/2000/98SE, have CPUs that are 200MHz or
faster and are in working condition, we can use them. Please contact Diane Subber at 695-5456 ext 106 between 11AM and 1PM or dianes@trentonsoupkitchen.org to discuss the possibilities.

NOTE: Make deliveries Monday-Thursday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM or Friday from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM. Bag lunches must arrive before 10 AM on Friday. We share a driveway with the Animal Shelter. Pull into that driveway and go to the double doors on the right. Ring the bell and someone will come out to help you.