Our Community
Community Involvement
Our employees are good neighbors in the communities they serve, giving back to those in need and helping maintain the safety of America’s communities. The following sections highlight some of these efforts.
The Postal Service is a long-time partner with the Marrow Foundation to build awareness about lifesaving bone marrow donations. And we’ve been a 20-plus year partner with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as part of the “Have You Seen Me?” program.
Annual Food Drive
On May 10, 2008, thousands of our letter carriers and other employees in more than 10,000 cities and towns collected, processed and delivered nonperishable food donated by customers. Now in its 16th year, the drive has provided more than 900 million pounds of food to the hungry, with this year’s drive collecting 73.1 million pounds.
Supporters of the drive, managed by the National Association of Letter Carriers, include Campbell Soup Company, America’s Second Harvest, local United Way affiliates, Valpak, the AFL-CIO Community Services Network and cartoonist Bill Keane, who provides special Family Circus artwork for the promotion each year.
USPS Benefits Program Manager Albert Woods is one of many USPS employees who donate regularly to the Combined Federal Campaign. One CFC-recognized charity is the Postal Employees’ Relief Fund that assists USPS employees who have lost homes or property to natural disasters such as wildfires or flooding.
Combined Federal Campaign
Each fall, the Postal Service participates in the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) fundraising drive, the world’s largest annual workplace charity campaign. In the FY 2007-2008 campaign, our employees pledged
Postal Employees’ Relief Fund
USPS also provides employee and community support through the Postal Employees’ Relief Fund (PERF). PERF is a humanitarian effort administered by USPS and our unions and management associations. It is supported by postal employees through the payroll deduction program of the CFC. Since its inception in 1990, PERF has assisted more than 4,500 employees and provided $15 million in humanitarian grants. The fund also provides financial assistance to postal employees and their families who experience damage from house fires, as well as property loss resulting from floods, hurricanes and tornadoes.
Marrow Donor Program
Since 1997, the Postal Service has collaborated with the Marrow Foundation to build awareness of the National Marrow Donor program and help increase the number and diversity of potential donor volunteers on the foundation’s registry.
USPS—with our large, diverse employee base—has been especially effective in drawing volunteers among African Americans and other minorities, since tissue matches tend to be most likely with donors of the same race.
Through the Postal Service’s Delivering the Gift of Life campaign, more than 42,000 postal employees have joined the registry and 75 have made lifesaving marrow donations.
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Proceeds from sales of the Breast Cancer Research semipostal stamp have raised more than $64 million for research since going on sale. |
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