In a concerted effort to help those in Omaha struggling to put food on the table during these tough economic times, Omaha city letter carriers along with their fellow rural carriers will hold their annual food drive on Saturday, May 9. Residents are encouraged to participate by placing non-perishable food, like canned soup, canned vegetables, pasta or rice, in a bag near their mailbox prior to mail delivery. All of the food will be distributed to local food banks whose shelves are traditionally bare this time of year.

Last year Omaha city carriers/rural carriers collected 61,027 pounds of food – nationwide the drive delivered a record 73.1 million pounds. Postal employees in all 50 states will participate in the food drive, which since 1993 has resulted in delivery of more than 900 million pounds of donations to community food banks and pantries. The Letter Carriers’ Food Drive is the largest one-day food collection in the nation.

“While it takes a lot of letter carriers and other volunteers to make it work, it’s ultimately the generosity of those we serve that makes the food drive so successful each year,” said Donna Whitmarsh, Omaha Letter Carrier and President of Branch 5 of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), who expects another tremendous response from the caring citizens of Omaha.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 36 million Americans live in food insecure households, and approximately one in every three of these Americans is a child. Additionally, a recent survey conducted of Feeding America food bank members reported a 30 percent increase in requests for emergency food assistance. The reasons cited for this dramatic increase in demand included rising cost of food, increasing unemployment and underemployment, the cost of fuel and the burden of mortgage or rent costs.

Food banks are also notoriously empty during summer months, having exhausted the supply of donations received from food drives conducted during the holidays that are then distributed during spring. Summer donations are even more critical since many children in need no longer have the benefit of their school lunch program.

Supporting the drive again this year are Campbell Soup Company, the U.S. Postal Service, Feeding America (formerly America’s Second Harvest – The Nation’s Food Bank Network), Valpak, the AFL-CIO and United Way of America.

The NALC is a postal labor union representing more than 300,000 members who have a long history of service to their communities. For more information about the annual Stamp Out Hunger! effort in Omaha, ask your letter carrier, contact your Post Office or visit helpstampouthunger.com.

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An independent federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 149 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes, six days a week. It has 34,000 retail locations and relies on the sale of postage, products and services, not tax dollars, to pay for operating expenses. Named the Most Trusted Government Agency five consecutive years by the Ponemon Institute, the Postal Service has annual revenue of $75 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail.