Thanks to everyone who helped with this year’s NALC ‘Stamp Out Hunger’ national food drive
The 20th anniversary 2012 Food Drive was Saturday, May 12. The 2013 Drive is Saturday, May 11.
“Amazing” Food Drive produces
amazing results
“What our letter carriers do on this one day is amazing,” said Rachel Bristol, chief executive officer of the Oregon Food Bank.
Bristol’s statement, made in regard to letter carriers’ participation in our 20th annual national Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive on Saturday, May 12, is just one example of the praise heaped on NALC members again this year.
“This is truly a community effort,” Bristol told Portland’s KTVZ Channel 21, “involving thousands of volunteers who unload trucks at every post office, box the food and load it onto donated semis for delivery to the regional food banks and food pantries.”
In Wheaton, IL, Melissa Travis, senior director of services for the People’s Resource Center, told the Glen Ellyn Patch that the event is “our biggest food drive of the year,” benefitting her center that helps stock a food pantry serving low-income DuPage County residents.
The results of this year’s drive are in, and customer generosity across the country on the second Saturday in May helped letter carriers pick up 70,743,973 pounds of non-perishable food items. This was the ninth consecutive year that collections topped the 70-million-pound mark, surpassing last year’s amount and bringing the grand total to nearly 1.2 billion pounds collected since the national drive began in 1993.
“Hunger in this country is a challenge that is far too big for one person to solve alone,” NALC President Fredric Rolando said. “Because we are members of one of the oldest and strongest labor unions in America, we recognize the power that comes from banding together to solve
the toughest problems.
“Our food drive really brings this point home,” he said. “When each of us picks up a bag of food from one customer, and then another and another, it doesn’t take long before our LLVs are full, our loading docks are overflowing—and soon we’re filling trucks and warehouses with literally
tons upon tons of food.
“While the drive doesn’t erase our country’s hunger problem, there can be no doubt that it makes a huge difference in the lives of our customers,” the president added.
Minneapolis Branch 9 letter carrier Randio Sainio agreed, telling KARE Channel 11 that delivering the mail might be his daily duty, but one day a year, he takes pride in also delivering someone’s next meal. “You know that people are really giving, and it’s awesome,” he said.
“When the weather’s good, it makes a big difference,” Sainio added. “Everybody is happier; people are out.”
Fall River, MA Branch 51 President Paul Knarr noted how charities in his community depend on the annual drive, since the donations help shelters and pantries make it through the summer months. “It bridges the gap before holiday donations come in,” he told The Herald News.
Following a successful pilot food drive held in 10 cities in October 1991, the NALC began working with the Postal Service to roll out a bigger effort that spanned the country. Food bank representatives told drive organizers that a late-spring date would work best for such an annual effort, since that was when donations collected during the winter holiday drives began to dwindle.
“This helps the local food pantry at a critical time of year,” Dave Weichinger, outreach director for Community Services Inc. in Nodaway County, MO, told the Maryville Daily Forum. “Donations to the pantry are usually down as summer approaches, so the timing for this food drive is perfect.”
Plus, in many communities, free or reduced-cost meals that are offered to children during the school year become unavailable during the summer vacation months, placing an even greater financial strain on the needy families that depend on such assistance during the school year.
“These kids know that they’re not going to have the school breakfast or the school lunch program that theywere accustomed to for the other 42 weeks of the year,” Val Traore, CEO of the Food Bank of South Jersey, told Philadelphia’s WPVI Channel 6. “And now for these 10 weeks, they’re going to struggle along with their parents.”
So the second Saturday in May was chosen as “Food Drive Day.” Over the drive’s 20-year history, individual branch participation in the national drive has steadily increased. Taking part in the drive on May 12 were 1,417 NALC branches, representing every state in the union plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam.
“This drive is yet another reminder that we do more than deliver the mail,” Rolando said. “Because we serve every neighborhood in America six days a week, we get to know our communities and our customers, and we develop a keen awareness for when something isn’t right. The food drive is just one more way to make a difference in the lives of people who often become as important to us as members of our own families.”
“We have anywhere from 100 to 125 people coming through the line” every Wednesday, Harlingen, TX Neighborhood Food Pantry coordinator Jim Coffman told the Valley Morning Star. “This (drive) is a great help to the people that are receiving food.”
Harlingen Branch 2983 President Abel Castañeda said his town’s residents should feel good about their strong response to the campaign. “The people responded great and that makes us feel really good that they were aware of the need here, and responded,” he said.
In Ventura County, CA, FOOD Share feeds more than 74,000 people each month and distributes food via 150 pantry partners and programs. “Not only did our letter carriers and donors go above and beyond to help feed the hungry” this year, FOOD Share coordinator Karen Jensen told the Star, “there were dozens of businesses and volunteers that pitched in behind the scenes to make the food drive an overwhelming success.”
President Rolando acknowledged that, while letter carriers lead the food drive effort, we get a great deal of support from many sources. “Our family members, our friends, and thousands of community volunteers help us get the job done, year after year,” he said. “And of course our national sponsors lend an invaluable hand as well.”
This year’s official sponsors were the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association, Campbell Soup Company, Valpak, U.S. Postal Service, United Way, AFLCIO, Feeding America, Uncle Bob’s Self-Storage and AARP.
And these national backers really do make a difference. For example, realizing that providing customers with specially marked bags has been shown to encourage greater food drive participation, Campbell’s donated 1 million “Stamp Out Hunger” grocery bags to be distributed in targeted locations around the country. The Publix grocery store chain provided similar bags throughout its southeastern U.S. locations, and AARP produced more than 13.5 million bags of its own for special delivery to states where senior-citizen hunger is a major problem.
“One in six families here on the Gulf Coast is below poverty level, and that means that somebody is going to bed hungry every night,” Mississippi State Association President Greg White told Biloxi’s WLOX Channel 13. His state was one of those supplied with special food drive bags from AARP.
“So far, the response has been 50 percent better than we have had in previous years,” White said, noting how the bags made something as easy as leaving a sack of food by the mailbox even easier.
“It’s wonderful,” said Buffalo-Western New York Branch 3 carrier Lynn Gozdziak, describing the drive to WIVB Channel 4. “It’s hard work, but it pays off in the long run. Everyone benefits; especially now with the economy the way it is, everyone is benefitting and you don’t realize how many people need the food.” The station’s report noted how the collected food stays in the local area—in Buffalo, collections there benefit 86 local food banks and pantries.
Walter Klepaski of the Wyoming Valley, PA United Way appreciates the local angle that the letter carrier drive brings to communities. “Here in Wyoming Valley, approximately 30 local food banks and pantries receive the donated food,” he told the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader. “For many food banks, the NALC Food Drive represents about 25 percent of their total amount of food distributed to those in need on an annual basis.
“Most are unaware that this group of hardworking individuals is not mandated by the U.S. Postal Service to collect the food while still delivering the mail, but rather volunteer to do so,” Klepaski added.
For many letter carriers, food drive day is merely another Saturday delivering the mail—just with a twist. “It’s pretty much the same thing I do every day, except I’m going to be picking up food,” Lubbock, TX Branch 2589 letter carrier Tika Williams told KJTV Channel 34.
“The people on my route are awesome,” she said. “They give so much. I see a bag and I think, ‘How am I going to get that back to my truck? By the time I get to the end of my route, I’m not going to have any room for mail!’ ”
South Plains Food Bank Director of Development Lyn Garcia appreciates the enthusiasm of Williams and her co-workers. “Our cupboards are pretty bare here at the food bank,” Garcia said. “We’ve been really waiting for this food drive. We really need this influx of food.”
“The donations from this food drive help our neighbors who are struggling to pay high utility bills and still have enough left over to buy food for their family,” said Rodney Bivens, executive director of the Regional Food Bank in Oklahoma City. “Thank you to everyone who donated to make
this food drive a huge success.”
“I have been struck speechless by your generosity—and that is no easy feat since I have kissed the Blarney Stone twice in my lifetime,” outreach worker Denise Stein wrote in the Orange (CT) Patch.
“With your assistance, I will now be able to feed the folks who use the food bank for quite a while.”
But for all of the many successes our annual drive continues to enjoy, in many communities its effects are sadly temporary. For example, A Place to Turn, a pantry that serves residents of 30 Natick, MA-area communities, has already been seeing a 10 percent to 15 percent increase in demand every year, Executive Director Joanne Barry told The Boston Globe. But in April and May, demand suddenly jumped 28 percent over last year’s numbers, she said, almost canceling out the food stock replenishment offered by the Stamp Out Hunger drive.
“We usually every year have food through the end of July,” Barry said. “We are already through all the food.”
As the country continues to struggle to shake the effects of the worst economic recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s, President Rolando said that hunger likely will be a problem in America for many years to come. “This is why we do what we do on the second Saturday in May every year,” he said. “Letter carriers are on the front lines, serving every neighborhood in America six days a week. We see the need—and it motivates us to do what we can to help stamp out hunger and make a difference.”
And as the NALC closes the book on the 2012 drive, planning already is under way for our 21st national outing on Saturday, May 11, 2013.
Note: The top-collecting NALC branches from both 2011 and 2012 were recognized at a ceremony during this year’s national convention in Minneapolis.
Questions regarding the food drive should be directed to NALC Director of Community Services Pam Donato at 202-662-2489 or at donato@nalc.org.
