Rockford, IL — Letter Carriers throughout the Rockford area and towns across America will deliver much more than mail when they walk and drive along their postal routes tomorrow. They’ll also be collecting the goodness and compassion of their postal customers who participate in the NALC Stamp Out Hunger National Food Drive – the largest one-day food drive in the nation and probably the world.
Led by letter carriers represented by the National Association of Letter Carriers (AFL-CIO), with the help of rural letter carriers, other postal employees and numerous other volunteers, the drive has resulted in delivery of more than 1.1 billion pounds of donations to community food banks and pantries over the past 18 years.
On Saturday, May 14, carriers will collect non-perishable food donations left by mailboxes and in post offices and deliver them to local community food banks, pantries and shelters. Last year, carriers throughout Northern Illinois collected more than 151,000 pounds of food to help feed those in need in our community.
The U.S. Postal Service and Campbell Soup Company are major supporters of the drive. Campbell Soup also earmarked an additional 1 million pound canned food donation to the drive. Other supporters are Cox Target Media and its Valpak Direct Marketing Systems, the nationwide direct mail marketing firm, which promotes the drive on 40 million packets delivered to postal customers.
The drive also relies on the backing of the National Rural Letter Carriers Association, the Feeding America food bank network; the United Way of America and its local United Ways, the AFL-CIO Community Services network, and countless local sponsors.
All citizens need do is to place the food next to their mailbox before their letter carrier delivers mail on Saturday, May 14. The carrier will do all the rest. The food is taken back to a postal station, sorted, and then delivered to the local food pantry. There it is available for needy families. Rockford Postmaster Ron Calloway said, “With many men, women and children living at risk of hunger, please join me and many other residents of the Rockford Area by placing a non-perishable food donation next to your mailbox to help Stamp Out Hunger.”
Some 35.5 million people face hunger every day in America, including 13 million children. This drive is one way people can help those right in their own city or town who need help.
The NALC food drive has received a number of accolades over the years, including two Presidential Certificates of Achievement.
Help the U.S. Postal Service Stamp Out Hunger!
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A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $67 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 29th in the 2010 Fortune 500. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency six consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.
