The National Association of Letter Carriers held their food drive to combat hunger last Saturday, May 14. Letter carriers collected non-perishable donations from homes as they delivered mail along postal routes. As the 19th annual NALC National Food Drive to stamp out hunger, the one-day drive is held annually on the second Saturday in May in 10,000 cities. Last year, 77.1 million pounds of food was collected, pushing the total to more than one billion pounds of food since 1992.
Participants were encouraged to leave a sturdy bag containing non-perishable foods such as canned soup, vegetables or pasta next to their mailboxes before regular mail delivery. This year’s estimate has yet to be released, but NALC President Frederic V. Rolando said that about 50 million Americans live in families that lack sufficient food, and one in every three is a child. “In every corner of this country, there are people and families who are hungry, including children,” Rolando said. “As letter carriers, we have the privilege of serving communities six days a week, of getting to know people, and we are grateful to have the opportunity to serve them in this way as well.”
