By Daniel Buckley,

When it’s time to buy new clothes or get that book you’ve been wanting to read, I’m guessing you love the convenience of online shopping. But when it comes to supporting your favorite cause — the Food Bank, of course! — the first thought that comes to mind for many people is going to the store and buying canned goods for a food drive.

But what if you could take the $4 you might spend on a can of soup and use it to buy 50 pounds of potatoes? With the Food Bank’s new Virtual Food Drive your dollar can do much more — providing twice or even three times the amount of food you could purchase at a supermarket — all with the convenience of shopping online.

Your donation is able to go so far because the Food Bank has access to wholesale prices directly from distributors. On top of that, as the organizer of your own Virtual Food Drive, you can extend your impact on hunger even further by inviting your family, friends and coworkers to shop from six aisles of food and Beyond Food items to support the Food Bank.

Signing up to hold my own Virtual Food Drive was easy — I just chose an exceedingly flattering photo of myself, entered a personal message, edited my page title and was ready to go!

Plus, the Virtual Food Drive lets you set your own fundraising goal. Since it is so easy to share your personal page online — through email, Facebook, Twitter and more — I was able to rally my friends behind me and I hit my original goal ($300) in just one day! Since I hit my goal so quickly, I increased it to $500, and have surpassed that now too.

Most people picked an item here and there — carrots from the Produce aisle or cheese from the Dairy & Eggs aisle. Once a few of them filled their cart and proceeded to checkout, the funds really added up!

Now when you think of supporting hunger relief, your first thought may still be of food drives – but maybe you will think of the impact of a Virtual Food Drive.