The National Association of Letter Carriers will conduct the nation’s largest single-day food drive Saturday, May 10.
That’s the 33rd anniversary of Stamp Out Hunger, one of America’s great days of giving.
Letter carriers travel throughout communities daily, often coming face to face with a sad reality for too many — hunger.
Each year on the second Saturday in May, letter carriers across the country collect non-perishable food donations from postal patrons. These donations go directly to local food pantries to provide food to people who need help.
The need for food donations is great. More than 44 million Americans are currently unsure where their next meal will come from. More than 13 million are children who feel hunger’s impact on their overall health and ability to perform in school.
Nearly 5.5 million seniors older than age 60 are food insecure, with many who live on fixed incomes often too embarrassed to ask for help.
The National Association of Letter Carriers’ food drive’s timing is crucial. Food banks and pantries often receive the majority of their donations during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday seasons.
By springtime, many pantries are depleted, entering the summer low on supplies at a time when many school breakfast and lunch programs are not available to children in need.
Participating in this year’s Stamp Out Hunger food drive is simple: Each postal patron is asked to leave non-perishable food donations in a bag by their mailbox May 10. Letter carriers will do the rest.
Over the course of its 30-year plus history, the drive has collected more than 1.9 billion pounds of food, thanks to a Postal Service universal delivery network that spans the entire nation and the generosity of postal customers across the nation.
Letter carriers across the nation ask the public to help them in their fight to Stamp Out Hunger.