Letter Carriers’ national food drive this Saturday

The National Association of Letter Carriers 21st Annual “Stamp Out Hunger” national food drive will be Saturday, May 11. It is the country’s largest one-day food-collection effort. Last year, NALC members and other volunteers picked up more than 70 million pounds of non-perishable food donations.

“On the second Saturday of May each year, thousands of letter carriers step forward and join our co-workers, family members, friends and community partners to pick up those all-important and often heavy sacks of donated non-perishable food items left by mailboxes,” said NALC President Fredric Rolando. “To get us there takes the dedication of hundreds of branch food drive coordinators, who have spent the last few months ordering and mailing countless customer-reminder postcards, putting up food drive flyers and posters, and so much more — often after spending the day delivering the mail.”

To participate in the Stamp Out Hunger food drive, simply leave a sturdy bag containing non-perishable foods, such as canned soup, canned vegetables, pasta, peanut butter, rice or cereal, next to your mailbox prior to the time of regular mail delivery on Saturday, May 11. The nation’s 175,000 letter carriers, representing nearly 1,500 NALC branches in more than 10,000 communities, will collect these food donations as they deliver the mail and take them to a local Feeding America food bank or hunger-relief organization.

“Such a massive effort is nearly impossible for us to pull off alone,” Rolando added, which is why NALC is thankful for the support received from its national and regional food drive partners:

• The National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association
• Valpak
• United Way Worldwide
• Campbell Soup
• AFL-CIO
• U.S.Postal Service
• Feeding America
• Uncle Bob’s Self Storage
• AARP and its “Drive to End Hunger” campaign
• GLS Companies
• Source Direct Plastics
• Publix
• Valassis/Red Plum