The National Association of Letter Carriers and the U.S. Postal Service will conduct its 16th annual nationwide food drive Saturday to help stock local food pantries. Postal customers may leave nonperishable food items by their mailboxes.

When the letter carrier delivers the mail, he or she will collect the food and return it to the local post office, and volunteers will deliver it to local food pantries, said Mike Montes, the food drive coordinator for the Crystal Lake post office.

Sixteen years ago, the letter carriers’ association decided that it wanted to give back to the community, Montes said. The group met with food banks and discovered that they often lacked food in the summer.

After a successful test run in 10 cities, the association expanded the food drive nationwide.

http://www.nwherald.com/articles/2008/05/09/news/local/...c22d7e2713244390.txt


2008 Food Drive is letter carrier blitz against hunger

Letter carriers, with help from their sisters and brothers in the other postal crafts and thousands of other volunteers, will stage a blitz on Saturday, May 10, to combat hunger in America, conducting NALC’s annual “Stamp Out Hunger” Food Drive in every U.S. state and jurisdiction.

The drive, in its 16th year, is the largest one-day food collection in the nation and the biggest community service effort by any union affiliated with the AFL-CIO.

quote:

“The food drive is the hallmark of the union’s tradition of community service,” said NALC President William H. Young, “a very rich tradition that includes numerous heroic acts by carriers as they deliver mail along their routes, the year-long campaign to collect funds for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and watching out for the elderly through the Carrier Alert program.”

On the day before Mother’s Day this year, letter carriers will focus their efforts on restocking the community food banks, pantries and shelters that millions of American families will rely on throughout the summer.

http://www.nalc.org/commun/foodrive/index.html

In our neighborhood only 3 of roughly 25 families contributed.

But, 3 is better than zero.