Letter carriers' annual nationwide food drive set for this Saturday, May 11

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WASHINGTON, May 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Association of Letter Carriers' annual Stamp Out Hunger^® Food Drive will be held on Saturday, May 11. The letter carrier food drive, which began in 1993, is the country's largest single-day food drive.

With the drive less than a week away, NALC and its national food drive partners will hold a kickoff event on Wednesday, May 8, at 11 a.m. at NALC Headquarters, 100 Indiana Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20001. Journalists are welcome to attend, and it will be live streamed at nalc.org/live. 

Each year, the Stamp Out Hunger drive is held on the second Saturday in May. Letter carriers in cities and towns across the United States collect donations of non-perishable food items left by residents near their mailboxes before that day's mail delivery.

Thousands of volunteers nationwide then help distribute the food items to local food pantries, with all food collected staying in the community.

"Letter carriers know the struggles that people in their communities face—we see it every day," NALC President Brian L. Renfroe said. "For more than three decades, we've helped to meet their needs, and it's time to do so again."

One in 8 Americans, including millions of children, elderly and veterans, are unsure where their next meal will come from. The timing of the letter carrier food drive is significant—by spring, food pantries are largely depleted of winter holiday food donations, and school lunch programs are about to close for the summer.

NALC leaders and several national food drive partners will discuss the drive's importance as well as the logistics involved at Wednesday's event.

The annual food drive wouldn't be possible without the support of NALC's national partners: the U.S. Postal Service, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association, Vericast, United Way Worldwide, the AFL-CIO, Valpak, Kellanova, and CVS Health. These partners help by paying for the specially marked postcards, donating thousands of pounds of food and thousands of dollars to food pantries, donating paper bags that letter carriers distribute to customers, gathering volunteers, or getting out the message about the food drive.

More information about the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive can be found online at nalc.org/food.

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NALC represents letter carriers across the country. Its 293,000 members make it the largest of the four unions representing employees of the United States Postal Service. Founded by Civil War veterans in 1889, NALC is among the country's oldest labor unions. 

SOURCE National Association of Letter Carriers