23rd Annual Letter Carriers’ Food Drive to Help Stamp Out Hunger

What if you could make a difference by doing something as simple as walking to your mailbox? Well you can! On Saturday, May 9th, leave a bag of non-perishable food items by your mailbox and contribute to the largest one day food drive in the world, the 23rd annual Letter Carriers’ Food Drive and help us Stamp Out Hunger!

The National Association of Letter Carriers SE MA Merged Branch 18, the US Postal Service and United Way of Greater New Bedford’s Hunger Commission have joined together to make this year a success.

“Hunger is a growing issue in our community,” said Michelle N. Hantman, President of United Way of Greater New Bedford.” This food drive helps put countless meals on the table for families throughout Greater New Bedford and we couldn’t be more thankful for the commitment by the Letter Carriers and the US Postal Service for making this possible.”

To participate in Stamp Out Hunger, leave a non-perishable food item or bag of items (every little bit helps!) by your mailbox or on your porch, it will be collected by your mailman during your normal mail delivery. Non-perishable food may include: cereals, beans, rice, canned meats, tuna, soups, vegetables, peanut butter, jellies or jams, pasta, tomato sauces, pancake mix or juices. For safety reasons, we ask that no glass containers be donated to avoid breakage.

Food collected by letter carriers throughout the day will be brought to local Post Offices where it is sorted and packed for food pantries to take back to stock their shelves. Pantries benefiting from Stamp Out Hunger locally include Catholic Social Services, St. Anthony of Padua Church, The Family Pantry- Damien’s Place, M.O. Life Food Pantry, PACE, Red Cross, The Salvation Army and Shepherd’s Pantry.

Since the beginning of the drive, nearly 1.3 billion pounds of food has been collected, 70 million pounds of that collected locally! Each year the drive collects between 40,000- 70,000 pounds of food for local pantries.

Anyone interested in volunteering to assist letter carriers in collecting the food on their routes throughout Greater New Bedford during the course of the day may arrange to do so by calling Richard Drolet at 508-801-2881 by Thursday evening, May 7th.

Be sure to join us Saturday, May 9th, and leave a non-perishable item or bag of items by your mailbox or on your porch and help us Stamp Out Hunger in Greater New Bedford!