Hatch Elementary PTO
April 1 - 30, 2025

Beyond Hunger
Can Do Challenge

The CAN DO Community Challenge is a hunger relief campaign sponsored by Beyond Hunger – schools compete to see who can collect the most points. We help raise food, funds and awareness to help end hunger locally. And our school is in it to win it. There are many ways we can contribute to our school’s Virtual Food Drive to help us win the Can DO Trophy. 

Ways to Earn Points
  • Get Creative

    Help spread some cheer and have students make birthday and other holiday cards (New Years, Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving) for our home delivery clients. Design the card and write messages from the provided template. You can drop off the cards with your food donations at the end of the month or we’ll schedule a pickup.

  • Share a Classroom Activity

    We have a variety of activities that students can do in the classroom or on their own to learn more about hunger and how they can make an impact. Activities include coloring pages, crafts, family activities, word finds and MORE. Each activity is worth 100 points. We just need a picture or scan of the completed project sent to corina@GoBeyondHunger.org. Classroom activities can be found on our google drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JwEzYLFMNFNsVfRGE6XiKplslWKLw6mR. 

  • Create your own Cooking Video
    500 Points

    Star in your own cooking show! Students can choose one of the Healthy Recipes from our website and create their own cooking video for us to share on our social media and YouTube channel. Try to keep the video approximately 2 minutes or less. Once we post your video, be sure to share it with your friends and school community. Send video submissions to: corina@gobeyondhunger.org. 

  • Food Donations
    5-10 Points

    Help stock our shelves and donate non-perishable food items. Below is a list of our most needed items for our Food Pantry, Despensa, and Home Delivery programs. You’ll notice a few items are worth more points as these are more difficult for us to procure. 

    *We can also earn 1000 Points by packaging and sorting our food donations before drop-off on April 30th. Contact Erin Flanagan-Kopenec if you would like to help. 

  • Create a Promotional Video
    300 Points

    Work together to create a 1-minute shareable video about how your school is raising awareness, food, and funds for Beyond Hunger. Make it fun and send that video or public link to corina@GoBeyondHunger.org so that we can brag about your efforts through our social media channels. 

  • Online Donations
    10 Points per $1

    Our Hatch online fundraising page is an easy way for donors to give securely and earn points for your team. You can even recruit fundraisers for your team to further your impact! (10 points per $1). 

    You will be able to see your progress in real time for all online donations. For every $1 donated, we can provide 3 meals! 
     
    In 2024, participating schools raised enough to provide over 56,000 meals
Hatch Donation Page Participating Teams
Most needed Items

Food Donation List

All food donations will be weighed for a total number of pounds, but only the items listed will be awarded points and count towards the competition.

10 Points Each

High Need Items

  • Bagged White Rice

  • Bagged Brown Rice (2lb bags)

  • Canned peaches (in natural juice)

  • Canned Tuna

  • Canned Chicken

  • Sunflower Seed Butter/Soy Butter

5 Points Each

Essential Items

  • Canned Chicken Soup

  • Cheerios’ Cereal

  • Canned Mixed Vegetables (low sodium)

  • Tomato Paste

  • Refried and Dry Beans (Pinto and Black)

  • Canned Pineapples

  • Gluten free pasta

  • Canned sardines (in water)

  • Vegetable oil (12-16 oz)

Local Businesses

Support Our Partners

Help local businesses and Beyond Hunger by purchasing items from the Most Needed List from our incredible Rescue Partners. Our rescue partners include local grocery stores and retailers that do their part to help eliminate food waste by donating products that are nearing their expiration date, or those with minor cosmetic blemishes. Partners include:

  • Trader Joe’s (483 N. Harlem, OP)

  • Sugar Beet Food Co-op (812 Madison, OP)

  • Jewel Osco (Any in Oak Park or River Forest)

  • Aldi (Any local)

  • Costco (Melrose Park)