What:

On Saturday, May 11, letter carriers nationwide will join forces to help stamp out hunger by collecting non-perishable food items and delivering them to local community food banks, pantries and shelters across the country. To kick off this year’s food drive, the San Francisco Postal District is hosting an event the day before to raise awareness about the food drive and encourage community participation. The media and public are invited and encouraged to attend this free community event.

Who:

John Beaumont, President, California State Association of Letter Carriers
Joelle Zamora, Manager, Post Office Operations
Raymond A. Buenaventura – Mayor of Daly City
Tami Cardenas, Director of Development and Marketing, Second Harvest Food Bank San Mateo/Santa Clara Counties
Rayna Lehman, Director, AFL-CIO Community Services/San Mateo County Central Labor Council - Labor Liaison to United Way of the Bay Area

When:

Friday, May 10, 2013, 9 a.m.

Where:

Daly City Main Post Office
1100 Sullivan Ave.,
Daly City, CA 94015

Why:

Photo, video and story opportunities with Postal and elected officials and local food bank representatives on the greater need this year because of the economy; U.S. Postal Service letter carriers on what it means to them to participate in the food drive; background information on the logistics of conducting the nations largest one-day food drive and more.

Background:

Hunger and under-nutrition in America are much more serious problems than most people realize. With current economic conditions and high food prices, more families than ever struggle to keep food on the table. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s annual study measuring food security in the United States, the number of Americans living in food insecure homes is more than 50 million, with approximately one in every three food-insecure Americans being a child (17.2 million).

About the Food Drive
This year will be the 21st Annual National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Food Drive — the largest one-day food drive in the USA. The U.S. Postal Service and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association join NALC as official sponsors in this effort to ‘Stamp Out Hunger.’ Other sponsors include Campbell Soup Company, Feeding America, Valpak, AFL-CIO and United Way of America.

Through a lot of hard work, dedication and compassion, and the support of customers in the communities they serve, letter carriers collected over 70 million pounds of food last year -- the ninth consecutive drive surpassing 70 million pounds collected. The total donations received since the drive began in 1993 now stand at nearly 1.2 billion pounds of food. They are counting on the public’s generosity once again to help feed the hungry this year.