More kids and teens are holding ethical parties where they forgo gifts instead of donations to a charitable, fundraising or social cause. This big trend is likely to increase if kids have a lot of fun doing good deeds. Since kids love scavenger hunts, this fun food bank scavenger hunt is a great party challenge as kids collect supplies for the local food bank. Definitely a win-win party!
If the scavenger hunt is for a children’s birthday party, you can ask guests to bring money to spend on food for the hunt, instead of bringing gifts.
There are 2 ways to play: If the guests bring cash, divide the guests into teams and divide the money evenly among the teams. Give each team a list and a shopping cart at their local grocery store. The first team to get all the items on the list (and spend the remaining cash on additional items for additional credit) and pay, wins. You can also award extra points for most items collected or for the heaviest total load.
Alternatively, you can ask 4-6 neighbors to join. Ask them if they have any items they are willing to donate to the food bank, and bring additional items. Put everything that you have gathered in a box. Houses are assigned a number and teams a number. Each team starts at the corresponding house number and takes 3 items from each box to cross off their list. Then they go to the next house and get 3 more items. Teams have no way of knowing which items will not be available later or which will be duplicates, but they should try to cross off as many items from their list as possible.
You can make a list of items for each team: what they need to collect and what the point value is. (Items you have in abundance would have lower points, rare items would have higher points, but rare items should be evenly distributed throughout the houses.) For example, canned salmon could have 10 points, canned vegetables 2 points, dry pasta 4 points, oatmeal 5 points, soup 6 points, tea 12 points, baby food 8 points, etc. Teams should have as many items on their list as possible and should get as many points as possible.
You can have prizes for the winning teams, such as medals or ribbons. Loot bags can also be made from fun foods, candy, coupons, certificates, etc.
This theme can be expanded to include school classrooms, where the class that collects the most food, etc. – win a pizza party or movie evening. It’s a great way to teach kids about social responsibility and the need to help the less fortunate.
