Every second Saturday in May, letter carriers in more than 10,000 cities and towns across America collect the goodness and compassion of their postal customers, who participate in the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Stamp Out Hunger National Food Drive — the largest one-day food drive in the nation.
Led by city letter carriers with help from rural letter carriers, other postal employees and additional volunteers, the drive has delivered more than 1.6 billion pounds of food the past 25 years. Last year, postal carriers collected 75.3 million pounds of food, assisting an estimated 30 million families.
Carriers collect non-perishable food donations left by mailboxes and in post offices and deliver them to local community food banks, pantries and shelters. Nearly 1,500 NALC branches in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands are involved.
Hunger affects about 50 million people around the country, including millions of children, senior citizens and veterans. Pantry shelves filled up through winter-holiday generosity often are bare by late spring. And with many school meal programs suspended during summer months, millions of children must find alternate sources of nutrition.
The United States Postal Service, National Association of Letter Carriers, National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association, AFL-CIO, United Way, United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, Valassis and Valpak Direct Marketing Systems are all supporting this year’s Stamp Out Hunger food drive.
How you can help
On Saturday, May 12, just leave a non-perishable food donation in a bag by the mailbox and the Postal carrier will do the rest. It’s that simple and millions of Americans in need will benefit.
Visit www.nalc.org/food to learn more.
The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.
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