The U.S. Postal Service and its employees strive to be responsible, committed members of their community. They support many organizations and many programs, including the ones summarized briefly below.
Delivering the Gift of Life Program. Since 1997, the Postal Service has supported the Be the Match Foundation in its efforts to increase the size of its marrow donor registry. The Postal Service leads the nation in recruiting potential donors, with 58,000 employees and family members listed in the registry. More than 80 volunteers have been asked to donate their marrow.
Stamp Out Hunger Annual National Food Drive. Letter carriers see the needs of their communities. For the last 21 years, they have collected food to help restock food banks, pantries and shelters nationwide. Carriers collected 74 million pounds of food in this year’s drive which ended May 11, 2013. This was an increase of 5 percent over last year and the second-highest amount of food collected in the drive’s history.
The Postal Service and the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), along with several other partners, supported the efforts of 1,400 NALC branches around the country. Other partners included: Feeding America, Campbell Soup Co., AARP, Valpak Direct Marketing Systems, Valassis/Red Plum, United Way Worldwide, AFL-CIO, Uncle Bob’s Self Storage, GLS Companies, Source Direct Plastics and the Publix grocery store chain. Rural letter carriers and other Postal employees, plus members of other unions and civic volunteers also helped, as did Family Circus cartoonist, Jeff Keane.
Combined Federal Campaign. Postal employees participate annually in the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC). This is a coordinated fundraising effort with more than 4,000 charitable organizations participating. Employees voluntarily contribute via payroll deductions, checks, cash and credit cards to the charities of their choice.
Carrier Alert. The Postal Service and the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) launched Carrier Alert in 1982 in partnership with social services programs across the country. Residents who participate in Carrier Alert require special attention and letter carriers are often the only daily visitors to the homes of these customers. Carrier Alert takes advantage of the daily presence of the letter carrier and the carrier’s ability to notice anything out of the ordinary to help identify customers who may be in need of assistance due to illness or an accident.
