This Saturday, your letter carrier, i.e. mailperson, will pick up canned goods and non-perishable food items for the annual “Stamp Out Hunger” drive.
The National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) has been doing this for 18 years now. This year, Campbell Soup Company is teaming up with them in what is the largest single-day food drive in the country.
The letter carriers do this every May to help stock of the food pantries, which often run short of food during the summer. Despite hard times, the letter carriers collected 73.4 million pounds of food last year.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that 49.1 million Americans live in households that don’t have enough food, with one in three of those being children. Feeding America estimates that almost 5 million households were given emergency food from a food pantry in 2008. And, given the bad economy of late, more households are requiring the support of food pantries.
What can you do to help? Donate some of the following items:
Canned soups and stews
Canned meats such as Spam, tuna, or salmon, chicken
Canned vegetables
Canned fruit
Boxed cereal and oatmeal
Pasta
Rice
Peanut butter
Dry beans
You don’t have to give a lot, just a few cans can help fight hunger. It is easy to contribute – just put your items on a bag and place it by your mailbox – your letter carrier will do the rest! In more than 10,000 communities, the quarter of a million letter carriers will collect food for the local food pantries to help feed the hungry.
If you can’t donate, you can help another way. Just “like” the Stamp Out Hunger Facebook page and Campbell’s will donate one can of soup for each fan to Feeding America.
If you forget to put food out on Saturday and still want to donate, drop food off at your local food bank or visit Feeding America to make an online donation.