The National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) will conduct its 26th annual national food drive on Saturday, May 12. The Stamp Out Hunger® Food Drive, the country’s largest single-day food drive, provides postal customers with an easy way to donate food to those in need in the community and is held annually on the second Saturday in May in 10,000 cities and towns in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam.
Postal customers simply leave their donation of non-perishable goods in sturdy bags next to their mailbox before the delivery of the mail on Saturday, May 12. Letter carriers will collect these food donations on that day as they deliver mail along their postal routes.
New this year, Food Lion will host an in-store food drive through May 12, offering customers another way to donate to the Letter Carriers’ food drive. Food Lion also supports the drive in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, North and South Carolina and Virginia by donating the equivalent of 200,000 meals to food banks and providing more than 10 million Stamp Out Hunger grocery bags for donors to use for USPS pickup.
With the economic struggles many Americans face, the Letter Carriers’ Food Drive is as critical as ever. Not only do millions of Americans go hungry, but organizations that help them are also in need of replenishments. Hunger affects about 41 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 most school meal programs suspended during summer months, millions of children must find alternate sources of nutrition.
Letter carriers see these struggles in the communities they serve, and believe it’s important to do what they can to help. On May 12, as they deliver mail, the nation’s 175,000 letter carriers will collect donations left by residents. People are encouraged to leave a paper or plastic bag containing non-perishable foods, such as canned soup, canned vegetables, canned meats and fish, pasta, peanut butter, rice or cereal next to their mailbox before the regular mail delivery on that Saturday. Letter carriers will take that food to local food banks, pantries or shelters including Feeding America Southwest Virginia.
Several national partners are assisting the NALC in the food drive: the U.S. Postal Service, the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association (NRLCA), the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), Valpak, United Way Worldwide, the AFL-CIO and Valassis.
Those who have questions about the drive in their area should ask their letter carrier, contact their local post office, or go to twitter.com/StampOutHunger.
The 280,000-member National Association of Letter Carriers represents letter carriers across the country employed by the U.S. Postal Service, along with retired letter carriers. Founded by Civil War veterans in 1889, the NALC is among the country’s oldest labor unions.
