TOTS-EAT timeline and planning ideas

Each troupe or team is free to conduct their community service however they wish. Below are some thoughts and suggestions that you may find helpful as you prepare for your TOTS-EAT campaign.

August–early September

• Now is the best time for troupes to commit to participating in this year’s collection. This is also the time to learn about the TOTS-EAT program and how important everyone’s involvement is. Read the TOTS-EAT introduction and FAQs to learn a lot more about the big difference your troupe can make in many lives.
• If your troupe wants to coordinate its collection efforts with one or more additional schools, now is the time to confirm that. Troupe teams may register to participate in the TOTS-EAT initiative.

September

• Once your troupe or team decides to commit to help feed hungry people in your community, you must register as a participating troupe or team. By doing so, your troupe or team becomes eligible for one of ten $100 gift certificates, good toward any purchase from the EdTA Resources and Thespian Gear and Honors catalogs. You’ll also have completed the first step toward winning one of the ITS TOTS-EAT community service awards. There are ITS community service awards for individually registered troupes, troupe teams, and participating chapters. For more information, see the registering section of the forms page.
• Because this is an ITS event, participation is only available to active troupes and their students (whether or not they have yet been inducted as Thespians). As long as the troupe’s annual dues have been paid for the current school year, the school may participate. Make sure your troupe’s annual ITS dues have been paid in full.
• Talk to other departments at your school about helping you make the collection program as successful as possible. Perhaps your math or social studies teacher will offer one point of extra credit for every two cans brought in. Maybe you can collect canned goods before a football game. Try to find creative ways to get the whole school to join in. There are many other ideas in the how-to section.
• TOTS-EAT is a perfect program for students to plan and coordinate. The troupe director doesn’t have to do all the work. Now is the time to organize your leaders. Students can earn points toward Thespian induction or honor Thespian status through their efforts. One point may be granted, at the troupe director’s discretion, for every ten hours of community service project work. See the Thespian point system on EdTA’s Thespian troupe documents page for more details on the point system. Find out when, and during which hours, your local “Beggars Night” will be held in October, and be sure to plan accordingly.
• Your troupe (or troupe team) should contact a local food bank program and ask if you can work with them to collect food on their behalf. Each troupe or team is free to coordinate their plans with any local charity. In Kansas, for example, fliers are sent to all charities and food banks, asking them to contact someone if they’re interested in receiving some of the collection. For more information, see the finding an organization section.
  
  When talking with charities:
  1. Ask if the food program can pick up the donated goods at a central collection point. In Cincinnati, our biggest organization, The FreeStore/FoodBank, is able to pick up donations brought to one area. Some smaller organizations may not have this capacity, and delivery of donations will have to be arranged.
  2. Ask if the food program can weigh the amount of food that is donated. In order to build a successful program and get the greatest recognition and publicity for your hard work, measuring your results is essential. If the food bank cannot weigh the food, you can check with local feed stores, public scales, or weigh stations to arrange to have your collection weighed. A gravel and sand company may also have scales suitable for weighing vehicles.
  3. Find out how the donation needs to be packaged for delivery to the charity. Perhaps paper bags are acceptable, or boxes may be preferred. You’ll make the delivery much smoother if you know the best way to pre-package your collection.
• In some metropolitan areas, one school may be willing to volunteer to host a party for Thespians after the collection process. This allows Thespians to be together another time to celebrate their success. It may be necessary for the host school to collect food on a different night to enable them to host the celebration. If you have a Thespian booster group or PTA, this would be a great project for them to help with.
• Now is the time to work at involving the whole school in your program. Would a teacher be willing to offer one point of extra credit for every two cans brought in by a student? Can classes compete for the largest total collection? Will the football team allow students to collect food from fans as they arrive at the game? Can you create a giant banner for the football team to crash through as they take the field before the game? Do you know someone from a sign company who is willing to donate a sign you can display along the road? Plan in September so that you will be ready to have a fantastic collection in October.
• Start developing your TOTS-EAT pre-collection fliers and collection night thank-you fliers. Samples of some suggested wordings are in the forms section. You’ll note that we suggest that the thank-you includes a discount of some sort on tickets to your next show as a show of appreciation. You can think of other ways to thank the families who help out—feel free to do so.
• We suggest that schools in the same area coordinate their activities to ensure collecting from as many different neighborhoods as possible without overlapping each other’s areas. Each house should be visited only once, and this way you can reach as many homes as possible in the time available. We suggest you map out the streets your troupe plans to visit and share these with the other nearby participating schools. (You can find nearby participating troupes on the list of registered troupes and teams, which is updated daily.)
• An option we’re excited to offer is the opportunity to purchase T-shirts to help announce and promote your troupe’s community service project.
  • We’ve licensed our vendor is licensed to offer great-looking, very affordable TOTS-EAT T-shirts. Each year a new design will be featured on the shirts. These make a great promotional tool and keepsake for participants. Be sure to wear them before your official collection night to help build awareness.
    • Download your copy of the TOTS-EAT order form. These shirts are licensed TOTS-EAT products and may only be purchased directly through EdTA’s licensed company, Successful Products (legal stuff, you know).
    • Order your TOTS-EAT T-shirts NOW to be sure you have what you need for your campaign. Orders must be received by the deadline on the order form to ensure delivery in time for your promotion days and collection night. Why not see if you can find a local business who’ll pay for these items as a way of supporting your campaign (and get recognized for it, of course)?

October

Preparing to weigh your total donation

• Before your collection night, have everything pre-arranged to get your donations weighed and delivered.
• Find out how the organization you’re collecting for prefers to receive donated items. Be prepared to have bags or boxes ready for collection night to make it as easy as possible for the charity.
• Some people are able to use a vehicle and weigh the whole collection by the truckload. If you have access to local docks, weigh scales, or public scales, weigh each vehicle empty now so that you can calculate the weight of the donations later. If you will be using more than one vehicle, weigh each and keep a list for convenience.
• You may want to weigh one box or bag of canned goods to get a “base weight” so you can calculate a total weight using a formula instead of weighing every box or bag. If you choose to use this method, you may want to weigh a second bag or box using boxed food items for a second base weight reference.
• In Georgia, one school involved the math department by having them do the calculations of the donation based on can or box weights and the total number of collected boxes or bags.
• Feel free to come up with a creative way to get an accurate donation weight total. If all else fails, you can add up the total number of 16 oz cans as pounds, the 8 oz cans as half pounds, etc., and calculate your total weight that way.

October 24: One week before collection

• Be sure to have everyone read the TOTS-EAT general information so that they can answer questions easily. This will go a long way toward convincing the community that this is a worthy program, and it makes a great impression on people.
• Pre-collection fliers can be distributed house-to-house in collection areas to raise awareness of the campaign. This is a perfect time for students to wear their TOTS-EAT T-shirts and buttons.
• If possible, participating students should wear their TOTS-EAT T-shirts and buttons to school, while out shopping, and during other activities to raise awareness of the upcoming collection. Be sure you can answer questions from people you meet about the program.
• Put up posters at your school, place of worship, YMCA, and in local businesses such as carry-outs, beauty salons, and grocery stores if possible.
• Try to get your TOTS-EAT campaign mentioned during your school’s announcements.
• Send a pre-collection news release out to all local media. Your goal is to remind them of the program coming next week. Feel free to use our sample as a guide. Remember, too, that it’s more effective to be brief.
• Contact each charity or food bank to confirm arrangements for delivery of collected items. Remember, we must receive your properly completed donation verification form no later than the deadline on the form for you to be eligible for ITS community service awards.
• If you haven’t done so already, weigh any vehicle(s) (while empty) that will be used to deliver the collected items to the charity in bulk; this way you can weigh it after collection and determine the total weight of the goods collected. In Kansas, a local construction company donated the use of a dump truck, and collections from several schools filled it with food. Imagine the sight of that pulling up at the free food store!

Around October 31: Collection day

• If you successfully contacted the local press, make sure you remind them that today is the day for your campaign. Invite them to be there for the delivery of your donations at the charitable organization you’ve selected.
• Have a safety discussion with all participating students and adults. Points to cover:
  • Review Dos and Don’ts.
  • Make sure everyone has maps and that no one is going out alone.
  • While the car holding the collected items is stopped, keep the headlights on for safety.
• Have all materials at the central collection area ready to go (boxes, bags, truck, helpers, etc.)
• Dress in costume from your fall show if possible. Otherwise, have troupe members wear the commemorative TOTS-EAT T-shirts you purchased back in September.
• If the participants are not wearing TOTS-EAT T-shirts, be sure each participant is identified with a TOTS-EAT badge.
• Collect only during the community’s approved collection hours.
• Be sure to hand out a thank-you card to all donating families.
• Meet at a pre-arranged time and location (school or area school) to load food into delivery vehicles, and for photos and a post-collection celebration.
• Weigh filled delivery vehicles to calculate your total collection weight.
• Deliver food to the selected charity as quickly as possible. The following morning is recommended.
• Have a representative from the charity complete and sign the TOTS-EAT donation verification form. The representative must sign the verification form for it to be valid. Properly completed forms must be received by the ITS home office no later than November 7 for your troupe or team to be eligible for awards.

Following collection delivery

• Troupes and teams must forward their properly completed TOTS-EAT donation verification forms to TOTS-EAT, Educational Theatre Association, 2343 Auburn Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45219-2815, or fax the forms to (513) 421-7055, no later than November 7.
• Be sure to share information about the program’s success within each participating school, neighborhood, and involved family.
• Send post-collection press releases to all local media announcing the tremendous success of the program. Again, keep them brief. Editors will not read long press releases.
• Your chapter may choose to acknowledge or even award something to the participating troupes at the chapter conference. Kansas, for example, has an “Honor Troupe” program, and community service projects are one of the criteria used for judging. Troupes that participate in the TOTS-EAT program include their information in the materials they present for consideration for Honor Troupe status.
• The ITS community service award winners will be announced around November 15.