Every second Saturday in May, United States Postal Service carriers participate in the largest one-day food drive in the nation.
On May 10, High Desert letter carriers will join others from more than 10,000 cities and towns as they participate in the National Association of Letter Carriers Stamp Out Hunger National Food Drive.
Food donors will place boxes or cans of non-perishable food next to their mailboxes. Letter carriers will then collect the items, a tradition that happens on the second Saturday in May.
Food has and continues to be collected at local post offices.
Rural letter carriers, postal employees and volunteers will join the drive, which has collected more than 1.82 billion pounds of food in the past 30 years, according to postal officials.
Collected food will be delivered to local community food banks, pantries and shelters.
Hesperia resident Marcus Douglas told the Daily Press that participating in the postal carrier food drive is a yearly tradition.
“With our busy schedules, it’s nice to just bag up a bunch of food and leave it by our mailbox,” Douglas said. “We usually buy about $100 worth of food from Winco or Stater Bros to donate.”
The United States Postal Service, National Association of Letter Carriers, National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association, AFL-CIO, United Way, Vericast, Valpak Direct Marketing Systems, CVS Health, Kellogg’s, and United Food and Commercial Workers International Union are supporting this year’s Stamp Out Hunger food drive.
One in 10 Americans faces hunger every day in America. The United States Postal Service food drive is one way people can help those who need help, postal officials stated.
This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Postal carriers to ‘Stamp Out Hunger’ by picking up food donations on May 10
Reporting by Rene Ray De La Cruz, Victorville Daily Press / Victorville Daily Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
