More than 4,000 letter carriers in urban and rural areas of Oregon and Southwest Washington delivered 1.2 million pounds of food to the Oregon Food Bank on May 9—part of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive.
Wrapping up its 23rd year, the food drive is held on the second Saturday in May in 10,000 cities and towns in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam. On that day, postal customers are asked to leave bags of non-perishable food next to their mailboxes for letter carriers to pick up. The bags are then dropped off at post offices, where volunteers sort through the food and load it into shipping containers. From there, the food is taken to the Oregon Food Bank for distribution.
The amount of food collected nationally was not available at press time, but typically it’s around 70 to 75 million pounds.
Donated food stays in the community where it was collected.
The Oregon Food Bank collects and distributes food through a network of four Oregon Food Bank branches and 17 independent regional food banks serving Oregon and Clark County. The Food Bank network helps nearly 1 in 5 households fend off hunger. Oregon Food Bank also leads statewide efforts to increase resources for hungry families and to eliminate the root causes of hunger through advocacy, nutrition education, garden education, and helping communities strengthen local food systems.
For more information, go to oregonfoodbank.org.
