Letter Carrier National Food Drive Helps Stamp Out Hunger

16th Annual Food Drive is Saturday, May 10

On Saturday, May 10, letter carriers in more than 10,000 cities and towns across America will deliver much more than mail when they walk and drive along their postal routes. They will also collect the goodness and compassion of their postal customers.

In the one-day food drive, carriers collect non-perishable food donations left beside mailboxes and deliver them to local community food banks, pantries and shelters as part of the 16th annual National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Food Drive.

The National Food Drive has become the largest one-day food drive in the nation's history. Due to the generosity of postal customers and the individuals who work extra hard on the day of the food drive, the special day helps tremendously in the effort to fight hunger in America by restocking food pantries who serve the needy in countless communities. In 2007, the drive collected 70,745,176 pounds of food for the needy from postal customers. That brought the total for the first 15 years of the drive to 836.2 million pounds collected nationwide.

Post card reminders were placed in mailboxes of participating communities announcing the May 10 collection day. All citizens need to do is to place a donation of non-perishable food next to their mailbox before their letter carrier delivers mail on Saturday, May 10.

The food is collected by the carrier and taken back to the carrier's postal station, sorted, and then sent to an area food bank or community food pantry. There it is made available for needy families.