Letter Carriers' Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive

[Omaha Steve]

Each year, letter carriers across the country head out on their routes on the second Saturday in May to collect donations of non-perishable food items to benefit local food pantries. Since launching in 1993, the National Association of Letter Carriers’ annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive has grown into the nation’s largest one-day food drive, helping to fill the shelves of food banks in cities and towns throughout the United States.

The need is great, but you can help. We invite you to join letter carriers and our partner organizations in the fight to end hunger in our communities by participating in the annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive.

Simply leave your donation of non-perishable food in a bag near your mailbox on the second Saturday in May, and your letter carrier will do the rest.



Stamp Out Hunger® is a registered trademark of the National Association of Letter Carriers, and may not be used or reproduced without prior written permission of the National Association of Letter Carriers.

[sheshe2]

1. The mailman just picked up my bag 😊

[quaint]

2. Last year someone posted results of a survey asking food bank clients their preferences.

This year my bag has dry milk, dried cranberries, red pepper and tomato soup, pasta, falafel mix and a small salt and pepper set (the milk, vegetarian proteins, and salt were requested). All organic because people in need deserve the same quality I get.

"Second Saturday in May" is what is printed on the request and bag my carrier delivered.
Are all USPS offices included in National Association of Letter Carriers?

[Ocelot II]

3. For some reason they don't do it here.

I've left out stuff three years in a row and it was never picked up. This year they didn't even leave a notice about it like they have in past years. Maybe there are too many houses on each route and the carriers can't handle all the bags.

[Doc Sportello]

4. My bag is sitting out by the mailbox

Not much but hopefully someone can use them.

[Tikki]

7. Ours, also.

The Tikkis

[Alliepoo]

5. Since it was supposed to rain this morning

I put my bag in the mailbox and lifted the little red flag- just in case we had no mail coming today!

[pfitz59]

6. My bag is sitting by the box

Beans and rice.

[ancianita]

8. Thanks for this! Just started working at a food pantry and learned what they actually do

besides give out food.

The church spent today (1pm - 8 pm) picking up food from the 45 USPS offices in the county. 30 trucks belonging to church members picked up and delivered the USPS food collections to the food pantry. There are around 100 pantries elsewhere in the county, though they're open one day a week or once a month. Still, I'm pretty sure no one in our area goes hungry.

My local church has the largest food pantry in Manatee County, giving out food five days a week from 9 am to 12 pm. It's quite a big operation, with a meat locker and big grocery storerooms. Donating retailers are WaWa, Sprouts, Panera, Winn Dixie & Dollar General. People are lined up by the courtyard entry area everyday, new family members signing up at tables, getting shopping carts and coming to our two windows.

I work there on Fridays, and when people come to our courtyard window I greet them (often in Spanish) then handle "intake" on computer for church records; I processed 100 families yesterday. At the next window they receive bags of donated groceries depending on their family's size; those bags sit on seven large tables around the room I'm in, having been 'assembly line' packed earlier, and continuing through the day's shift. Then as clients approach the parking lot there are also long line of tables with other groceries they can pick out, donated by church members.

I'm pretty sure USPS doesn't itself distribute what it collects. So if it does this kind of thing all over the country, even once a year (I've no idea what the scale of it is) we're using the USPS to do something phenomenally good.