Central Florida letter carriers helped Stamp Out Hunger! across both Central Florida and America, on Saturday. Now in its 21st year, the Stamp Out Hunger! food drive has become the nation’s largest single-day food drive. In 2012, generous Americans donated more than 70 million pounds of food, which marked the ninth consecutive year that at least 70 million pounds were collected by letter carriers.
This year’s food drive supporters include the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association, Campbell Soup Company, Valpak, U.S. Postal Service, United Way, AFL-CIO, Feeding America, Uncle Bob’s Storage, AARP, GLS, Source Direct Plastics, Publix and Valassis.
To help Stamp Out Hunger! this year, Central Florida residents were asked to leave a sturdy bag containing non-perishable foods – such as canned soup, canned vegetables, pasta, rice or cereal – next to their mailbox prior to the time of regular mail delivery on May 11. Local letter carriers collected these food donations as they delivered the mail and took them to Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.
“This year we collected more than 271,000 pounds of non-perishable foods for Central Floridians,” said Dave Krepcho, President/CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank. “This product will make a major difference in the lives of Central Florida families this summer. For the past two decades, the letter carriers have gone above and beyond to help the communities they serve. It’s really inspiring and we’re proud to work with them each year!”
According to Second Harvest, more than 350,000 Central Floridians are at the poverty level and are living on the brink of hunger; and, throughout the nation more than 35 million people are food insecure, hungry or at risk of hunger. Approximately one in four people in a soup kitchen line is a child.
