REMINDER: NALC food drive set for Saturday, May 11

Once a year, Postal Service letter carriers go the extra mile in the fight against hunger by participating in the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive.  This year, letter carriers will pick up nonperishable food donations left at residential mailboxes on Saturday, May 11.  The goal is to collect 400,000 pounds of food for Second Harvest North Florida.

Although the NALC effort is a national event, much of the food donated in the Jacksonville area will directly benefit the Second Harvest North Florida, which provides food to more than 450 community programs such as church pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters and senior citizen centers in 17 counties. The NALC Food Drive provides much-needed food during the typically lean summer months when children are not in school.

The need for food continues to rise – from 6.62 million pounds distributed in 2007 to 22 million last year.  One in six adults and one in four children in north Florida do not know when or from where their next meal will come.  Fifty-five percent of all schoolchildren attending Duval County Public Schools are eligible for free or reduced-fee meals.  Their families struggle to feed them over the summer when school meals aren’t available.

This will be the 21st annual "Stamp Out Hunger," which is the largest one-day food drive in the United States. Residents receive a postcard reminder in their mailbox during the week leading up to the event. They are asked to leave nonperishable food donations in bags or boxes by their mailboxes, which will be picked up by their Postal Service letter carriers as they deliver mail on their routes.

Hundreds of volunteers and Second Harvest staff wait eagerly at postal distribution centers to receive the donated food from the letter carriers.  They sort the food and send it to Second Harvest’s warehouse so that more volunteers and staff can begin preparing it for distribution.

“We are so appreciative of the extra work that the letters carriers take on in picking up this food,” Ganger said.  “There is no way that we could secure all this food in one day without their help.  We hope they finish an exceptionally long and hard day knowing that they have helped feed hungry children and their families.”