Background: On Saturday, May 12, 2018, letter carriers will collect food in every neighborhood across the nation to help stock local food bank shelves that are struggling to keep up with demand. This is the largest one-day food drive in the world. Over one billion pounds of food has been donated during its history.

Actor Edward James Olmos, along with Actress Alison Arngrim, NALC members and USPS officials, will get the word out at this event about how easy it is for everyone to help their neighbor by placing a sturdy bag of non-perishable food by their mailbox on Saturday, May 12. Letter carriers will collect the food and deliver it to a local food bank. MEND Food Bank representatives will discuss the skyrocketing need for food assistance in the Los Angeles area, especially during the summer months.

Award-winning actor and producer Edward James Olmos — whose father was a USPS letter carrier — was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. Olmos is best known for his acting roles in films such as Stand and Deliver, Selena and Blade Runner; miniseries such as The Burning Season and Hollywood Confidential; and TV shows such as Miami Vice and Battlestar Galactica. He earned a Golden Globe Award for best actor in The Burning Season and was nominated for both an Academy Award and Golden Globe for his lead role in Stand and Deliver.

A social activist in a diverse array of causes and charitable organizations, Olmos has been a longtime pioneer for more diversified roles and images of Latinos in the media.  Olmos has publicly supported the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive since 2013.

Actress Alison Arngrim was born in 1962 in New York City.  Arngrim followed in the footsteps of her showbiz family to become a child actress. In 1974, she was cast as spoiled Nellie Oleson on Little House on the Prairie. Arngrim remains known for this role, and capitalized on this notoriety with a stage show and a memoir entitled Confessions of a Prairie Bitch. In 2004, she spoke out about the sexual abuse she experienced as a child.

On November 18, 2014, Rusty Hicks, 37, was unanimously elected to the position of President of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. His election to the post makes him one of its youngest leaders and the first post-9/11 war veteran to lead one of the nation’s largest labor federations.

Raised by a single mother in Fort Worth, Texas, Rusty saw first-hand the challenges of attaining the American Dream. His mother was a bookkeeper, his grandfather a grocery clerk and his grandmother a teacher’s aide. Their hard work inspired Rusty to a life of service to ensure that the voices of working people are heard on the job, in their communities, and at the ballot box.

Learn more about the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive today!

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