US letter carriers collect 70m pounds of food for needy
Letter carriers in the United States collected 70.2m pounds of food during last month’s nationwide one-day campaign to “stamp out hunger”.
The National Association of Letter Carriers revealed yesterday that the events in 10,000 cities and towns in all 50 states had helped this year’s Food Drive become the eighth in succession to surpass a 70m pound collection total.
The event held annually on the second Saturday in May has now seen letter carriers collecting more than a billion pounds of food since the first Food Drive in 1993.
Around 230,000 mail carriers take part, collecting non-perishable food donated by residents and delivering them to food banks and shelters.
NALC said this year’s drive had been particularly important with the current tough economy, with 50m Americans living in families facing food shortages.
NALC president Fredric Rolando said: “Six days a week, letter carriers see first-hand the needs in the communities they work in, and we’re privileged to be able to help the needy and to lead an effort that brings out the best in so many Americans.”
The union, which represents urban letter carriers, said its top five branches in this year’s Food Drive were Branch 1477 West Coast Florida Merged (1,770,814 pounds), Branch 599 Tampa, FL. (1,729,382), Branch 458 Oklahoma City, OK (1,485,118), Branch 3 Buffalo, NY (1,383,220), Branch 1100 Garden Grove, CA (1,112,083).
Rural letter carriers, other postal employees and volunteers also supported the Food Drive, with the backing of the US Postal Service, National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association, along with corporate supporters Valpak, Campbell Soup Co., and Uncle Bob’s Self Storage.
