National Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive Day is observed on the second Saturday of May and will be held on May 11 this year. It is the largest food drive in the country and takes place in more than 10,000 cities and towns.
National Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive Day is conducted by the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC). The drive was started in October 1991 as a trial program and took place across 10 cities in the United States. It was highly successful and has continued every year since.
The initiative was formed by a union wanting to give back to those in need, whether it be by donating funds to a charity, collaborating during times of disaster or protecting victims of calamities and crimes.
The date for the drive was later moved to the second Saturday of May. The NALC decided that the best time of year for the food drive would be in the late spring. This was because food banks and pantries ran out of food by May, as donations decreased after Thanksgiving and Christmas.
ECHO of Brandon has been a recipient of Stamp Out Hunger for many years, and the local nonprofit is looking for volunteers for this event.
“ECHO has been a beneficiary of this food drive for many years now, and [it] is critical to keeping our food pantry stocked year-round,” said ECHO’s director of emergency services, Savanna Thompson. “Last year, the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive collected more than 65,000 pounds of food donated to ECHO to support families in crisis.”
It was the postmen who mostly saw the obstacles that communities faced. On May 11, the postal carriers both deliver mail and collect food donations. As they deliver orders, bills and postcards, people get to help out by filling their mailbags with nonperishable food donations.
“We need more than 600 volunteers that day to make it happen,” Thompson said. “If you can’t volunteer donate, you will get a bag in your mailbox in the first week of May. Fill the bag with new, nonperishable food and put it out at your mailbox for your mail carrier to pick up on May 11.”
Thompson and the team at ECHO hope members of the community will volunteer for this fun event.
“We hope to have a fun day working hard to help those in need,” Thompson said. “Joining together with USPS to make this happen each year is one of the highlights of my year. We live in an amazing community that all comes together so well to help feed the hungry in our community.”
If you’d like to volunteer with ECHO for Stamp Our Hunger, you can visit ECHO’s website at https://echofl.org/.
