‘Stamp Out Hunger’ food drive turns 25 Saturday

The 25th annual Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger® Food Drive, coming up 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.

As letter carriers are keenly aware, too many families live in challenging situations, uncertain of where their next meal will come.

“We deliver to every address in America at least six days a week,” says Fredric Rolando, President of the National Association of Letter Carriers. “Because we’re such a consistent and familiar presence in neighborhoods, we’re all too familiar with the unfortunate reality of ongoing hunger.”

Over the last 24 national food drives, letter carriers have collected more than 1.6 billion pounds of food, helped by untold thousands of fellow postal employees, retired letter carriers, family members and friends. The food is then distributed to local food pantries within the same communities where it was collected.

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 families throughout the summer,” Rolando said. “In 2017, we will build upon the millions of pounds of non-perishable food collected since 1992 from millions of generous postal customers.”

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 individuals 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, a “21 Cares for Kids” partner..

About 43,000 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 2.8 million pounds of food to 42 local agencies in Crook, Deschutes, and Jefferson counties.