On Saturday, May 12, people from across the country will partner with their letter carriers to help “Stamp Out Hunger.” Now in its 20th year, the Stamp Out Hunger food drive is the largest single-day effort to combat hunger in America and the largest single-day food drive for Second Harvest Food Bank.
To participate, residents are asked to place a sturdy bag of non-perishable food items like peanut butter, pasta, rice, low-sugar cereal, and canned foods such as tuna, meat, stew, soup, and vegetables, by their mailbox before their mail is delivered on Saturday, May 12. Letter carriers will collect the food items and deliver them to their local food bank to then be distributed to the community to help those at risk of hunger.
Last year, Santa Clara and San Mateo County letter carriers collected more than 321,000 pounds of food for those in need. In 2011, drive organizers across the country collected more than 70 million pounds of total food donations for the eighth consecutive year.
Kathy Jackson addresses letter carriers at the Stamp Out Hunger Kick-off on May 5 in San Mateo
“We appreciate the support we receive each year from our local letter carriers,” says Kathy Jackson, CEO of Second Harvest. “Second Harvest provides food to nearly 250,000 people each month, an astonishing one in 10 people in our two-county region. That number is up nearly 50 percent since the recession started, so we are grateful for the generous donations we receive from the community and the many volunteers who make Stamp Out Hunger a success.”
Local letter carriers hope to surpass 400,000 pounds this year and you can help by leaving a donation by your mailbox and spreading the word. You can learn more about our local drive by reading this great article in the San Jose Mercury News.
Thank you for joining us to Stamp Out Hunger this Saturday!
