#Facebook’s new ‘Drives’ help collect food and clothing for people in need

Facebook today announced a new feature called Drives. No, that’s not a ‘drive’ in the sense of yet another cloud storage service, but instead in the sense of “clothing drive” or “food drive.” It builds on the social network’s fundraising tools for emergencies and community causes, except this time it’s not so much about raising money as it is about donations of actual goods.

The feature, which is launching in the US to start, will be available in the Community Help hub on the Facebook app. It can be accessed by typing ‘Community Help’ into Facebook‘s search bar, then clicking on ‘Request or Offer Help’ and ‘Create Drive.’

You’ll then be able to fill out a form with information such as the type and number of items you want to collect. Once created, you and others can see a tracker with how many items are left to collect.

The feature builds on the fundraising tools Facebook has released over the years, including for emergency relief, charities, non-profits, and more personal causes.

Drives are rolling out starting today and should be available to everyone “in the coming days” — hopefully in time for the holidays, while people are feeling a little more helpful.

Via TechCrunch