What:
The National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) launches “Food Drive Week” with a kickoff event in advance of its annual Food Drive.
When:
Monday, May 3 – 10:00 a.m.
Where:
National Association of Letter Carriers James E. Worsham Building
3850 S. Wabash Avenue
Who:
Gloria Tyson, District Manager/Postmaster, U.S. Postal Service, Chicago District
Mack Julion, President, NALC Charles D. Duffy Branch 11
Pastor Michael Pfleger, Catholic Charities Social Services - St. Sabina Parish
Filiberto Rios, Association House of Chicago Food Pantry
Background:
The nation’s largest annual food drive to “Stamp Out Hunger” will be conducted Saturday, May 8.
This press conference will announce changes in NALC Branch 11’s participation. First, Chicago letter carriers will collect non-perishable donations from homes as they deliver mail along their route on the day of the drive. Second, donations will be distributed to 24 neighborhood pantries across the city, to assist agencies in the neighborhoods the carriers serve.
Customers can also bring donations to any Chicago District (ZIP Code beginning with 606, 607 or 608) station or branch from May 3 to May 8.
Last year, Chicagoans donated more than 60,000 pounds of food in the drive.
The annual NALC Food Drive — held in conjunction with the Postal Service — is the largest one-day food drive in the nation. The effort will help feed families in all 50 states. Donations from this year’s event are expected to push the overall total since the annual drive began 18 years ago to more than 1 billion pounds. The total currently is 982.7 million pounds.
More than 125 million postcards — designed by the Postal Service and co-sponsored by the Campbell Soup Company — have been mailed to customers to remind them of the drive. Other co-sponsors of the drive are Feeding America, the nation’s food bank network; United Way Worldwide and its local United Ways, the AFL-CIO; Valpak; and the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association.
More information on the Food Drive, including the list of participating local pantries, is available at NALC Branch 11’s website, www.nalcbr11.org
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