Postal Service to Hold Food Drive to Stamp Out Hunger

By Lilly Adkins

BSN Associate Editor

REGIONAL — Postal Service employees from all over the nation, will step up to ‘Stamp Out Hunger,’ an annual food drive to help feed those in need on Saturday, May 13.

Participants are asked to fill a bag with healthy, non-perishable food items and place it by their mailbox for mail carriers to pick up. During the drive, postal employees collect the food and donate it to local food banks and pantries.

They ask that you donate items such as pasta, cereal, oatmeal, canola oil, peanut butter and canned goods, including beans, fruit, vegetables, soup, tuna in water, meat and sauce, but they ask that you avoid glass containers.

‘Stamp Out Hunger,’ is the nation’s one-day food drive, with 1.82 billion pounds of food collected since it began in 1993, including 41.2 million pounds last year, a release from the United States Postal Service said.

The release said the drive is held in spring because many schools suspend their breakfast and lunch programs for the summer, leaving millions of kids in need of alternative sources of nutrition.

“That makes the timing of the food drive crucial,” NALC President Brian L. Renfroe said in the release. “Letter carriers go out on their routes and see up close what their communities need.”

The National Association of Letter Carriers leads the one-day event, with help from USPS, the National Rural Letter Carrier’s Association, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, the AFL-CIO, the Kellogg Co., CVS Health, Valpak, United Way Worldwide, Vericast and local food pantries.