Washington (PAI) — This year, the National Association of Letter Carriers’ (NALC) annual “Stamp Out Hunger” nationwide food drive will be live an in-person, again, on May 14.
The coronavirus pandemic curtailed the food drive the last two years. Not this year.
The nationwide effort asks postal customers to leave bags of food by their mailboxes for their letter carriers to collect and also features collection boxes at post offices and donation bins in multi-unit buildings.
Its aim, as always, is to deliver canned goods, cereals, pasta and other non-perishable items to food banks, pantries, food kitchens and homeless shelters.
Donations to the annual food drive help feed one of every eight people in the U.S. who don’t get enough to eat, according to the Food Research and Action Center.
“Nationally, we hope to raise 75 million pounds of food,” Peoria, Ill., NALC Branch 11 President Scott Haney wrote in The Labor Paper. “Over the history of the drive, over one billion pounds of food has been collected and donated to local pantries.
FOOD STAYS IN YOUR COMMUNITY
“Even though it’s a national drive, the key is the food stays in your home communities,” Haney added. “This is important as during the summer months, many pantries find their supplies diminish while demand is greater.”
There’s a simple reason for that phenomenon, NALC’s Community Service Department says: Kids who would ordinarily get free or subsidized lunches during the school year aren’t in school in the summer. But families still can’t afford all the food they need.
“As the need for food assistance is still more significant than ever, we want to allow everyone to continue to meet that need and help your local community food pantry or bank,” NALC says. “The Stamp Out Hunger donor drive is a drive with a single mission — to feed the hungry in America, and as always, with your help, we will!”
For more information on the food drive, visit the NALC website at www.nalc.org.
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