Dallas — The National Association of Letters Carriers (NALC) along with several key supporters announced that the 18th annual food drive is May 8. Dallas Postmaster Pat Williams said representatives from the Postal Service, the National Association of Letter Carriers, Campbell’s Soup Company, Kroger Food Stores and local food banks and pantries would join and participate in a major community-wide initiative. Other co-sponsors of the food 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.
“The NALC Food Drive is a national effort to Stamp Out Hunger!,” says Williams.
“For 18 years, this has served as the nation’s largest single food drive. Last year, the Postal Service collected just over 73 million pounds of food from postal customers. Here at the Dallas Post Office, we gathered more than 160,708 pounds in 2009. Over the last 17 years, the NALC has collected more than 981 million pounds nationwide, to replenish food banks across America.”
NALC Food Drive postcards and Kroger Bags will arrive in the mail this week. Put non-perishable items in the bag, place it next to the mailbox, and a carrier will collect it, when he or she delivers the mail. All contributions this year will again help people, right here at home, who have lost their jobs, and homes. Statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reflect that millions of people are making decisions between rent, utilities, medicine and the most basic necessity – food. Its annual study of hunger in America indicates the number of people living at the margins of hunger, struggling to make ends meet and put food on the table, has increased from 35.5 million to more than 49.1 million people. This means that 1 in 6 Americans is uncertain where their next meal will be coming from.
Contributions you make on May 8 will help stock local food pantries, and shelters that thousands of Texas families will rely on this summer. To learn more about the Stamp Out Hunger! effort, local residents should ask their letter carriers, and contact their local post offices or visit www.helpstampouthunger.com.
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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 direct support from taxpayers. With 36,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, the Postal Service relies on the sale of postage, products and services to pay for operating expenses. Named the Most Trusted Government Agency five consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $68 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 28th in the 2009 Fortune 500.
