You can ‘Stamp Out Hunger’ in C. Oregon this Saturday

The 24th annual Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger® Food Drive, which takes place this Saturday, is the nation’s largest one-day food drive, providing letter carriers, other postal employees and thousands of volunteers the opportunity to meld their forces to fight hunger in our communities across the nation.

“Letter carriers touch every residential and business address in this country at least six days a week,” NALC President Fredric Rolando said, “and our continued effort in the fight against hunger – often in our own neighborhoods – has made us all too familiar with the staggering numbers of people in need.”

The availability of nutritionally adequate and safe food, or the ability to acquire such food, is limited or uncertain for 1 in 6 Americans, many of whom are in households with at least one person working.

“So our goal is to help restock community food banks, pantries and shelters for needy families throughout the summer,” Rolando said, “and to build upon the millions of pounds of non-perishable food collected since 1992 from millions of generous postal customers.”

Last year’s drive collected about 71 million pounds of non-perishable food that was left in bags next to postal customers’ mailboxes. It was the 12th consecutive year that letter carriers have collected more than 70 million pounds of food, and it brought the drive’s grand total to more than 1.4 billion pounds of food collected.

On a local level, food collected in Central Oregon will go to NeighborImpact’s Emergency Food Assistance Program to help feed more than 20,000 each month.

“Central Oregon is a generous community and nearly half of the food collected each year by NeighborImpact is sourced locally – one of the largest percentages of any community in Oregon,” says Carly Sanders, Food Program manager for NeighborImpact.

About 55,000 pounds of food was donated last year during the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. All the food collected stays in Central Oregon and is processed through NeighborImpact’s regional food warehouse in Redmond.

To donate, just leave a sturdy bag containing non-perishable, non-expired foods such as canned soup, canned vegetables, canned meats and fish, pasta, peanut butter, rice or cereal next to a mailbox before the regular mail delivery this Saturday.

“NeighborImpact tends to see a decline in food donations through the summer months, so this food drive allows us to feed families until the holiday food drives begin in early winter,” explains Sanders.

The NeighborImpact Food Bank Program is the regional affiliate of the Oregon Food Bank and distributes over 2.6 million pounds of food to 40 local agencies in Crook, Deschutes, and Jefferson counties.

For more information on the National Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, visit www.nalc.org/community-service/food-drive or www.facebook.com/StampOutHunger .

About NeighborImpact: Since 1985, NeighborImpact has been a leader in developing solutions and bringing resources to Crook, Jefferson and Deschutes County. The agency offers a diversity of services meeting basic human needs for food and shelter, while enriching people’s lives by providing access to increased education, skills, and hope for the future. NeighborImpact is a private nonprofit organization that receives federal, state and local grants, foundation grants, donations from individuals and business in our community. To learn more about NeighborImpact, please visit www.neighborimpact.org.

NeighborImpact is a “21 Cares for Kids” partner.