Letter Carrier food drive set for Saturday

Midlands letter carriers will join others across the state and nation Saturday for the National Association of Letter Carriers’ 23rd Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive.

The annual drive collects food donations from postal customers to be distributed to hunger relief agencies in their communities. Donations raised locally will support Harvest Hope Food Bank and various other food pantries and kitchens.

Here’s how to help.

Postal customers are asked to leave their non-perishable food donations in a bag near their mailboxes Saturday before their letter carrier arrives. The carriers have been delivering special donation bags in recent days but customers also can use their own.

Once collected, the food will be delivered to the local food banks and pantries for distribution.

Non-perishable food donations of any type are welcome. Foods that are high in protein ‑ such as canned tuna, salmon, beans and peanut butter ‑ are most needed. Other preferred items include canned fruits and vegetables, whole grain, low sugar cereals, macaroni and cheese dinners and 100 percent fruit juice.

Donors are asked to make sure the items have not expired and to avoid rusty or unlabeled cans, glass containers, perishable items, homemade items, noncommercial canned or packaged items, alcoholic beverages, soda or open or used items.

“Harvest Hope is incredibly grateful to the dedication our letter carriers show every day for postal customers, and the extra hard work they take on every year during the Stamp Out Hunger food drive,” said Harvest Hope CEO Denise Holland.

Holland said last year, Midlands area post offices collected more than 80,250 pounds of food – or enough for 61,731 meals – for Harvest Hope clients in the immediate area. An additional 76,000 pounds were collected in the Florence and Greenville areas.

“That means their hard work gathered more than 120,430 meals (collectively) last year to help our mission to bring hunger relief to struggling families (throughout the agency’s 20-county service area), and we are so thankful for their continued efforts,” Holland said.

Nationally, letter carriers collected more than 74.4 million pounds of non-perishable food, marking the second-highest total since the drive began in 1992.

To date, the annual drives have generated just under 1.3 billion pounds of food.

This story was originally published May 7, 2015 at 12:42 PM with the headline "Letter Carrier food drive set for Saturday."