On Saturday, May 12, local communities across America will be asked to join the U.S. Postal Service and its letter carriers to combat one of this nation’s growing problems — hunger.

About 50 million Americans — including 17 million children — now live in families that lack sufficient food.

The Postal Service, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), Campbell Soup Company, Feeding America and other partner organizations are working together to collect food donations on May 12. It is the nation’s largest single-day food drive in local communities across America — including Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands.

Now in its 20th year, the Stamp Out Hunger food drive benefits Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization.

In 2011, letter carriers collected 70.2 million pounds of food donated by customers on their delivery routes, which marked the eighth consecutive year the total food collection was at least 70 million pounds.

How to Participate in Stamp Out Hunger food drive
To participate in the 20th Stamp Out Hunger food drive, residents are encouraged 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 Saturday, May 12. Letter carriers will collect these food donations as they deliver the mail and take them to their local food bank or pantry.

For more information about the annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive, visit www.helpstampouthunger.com or www.facebook.com/StampOutHunger.

USPS and the National Association of Letter Carriers are hosting their annual Stamp Out Hunger National Food Drive this Saturday, May 14.  USPS Mail Carriers will collect non-perishable food donations left by mailboxes and will deliver the items to local community food banks and shelters. 

Now in its 19th year, the Stamp Out Hunger effort is the nation’s largest single-day food drive. In 2010, the food drive not only set a record with a total of 77.1 million pounds of food donated, but also surpassed one billion pounds of food collected over the 18-year history of the drive.

To help, all you need to do is place a box or can of non-perishable food* next to your mailbox before your letter carrier delivers mail on Saturday, May 14.  The carrier will then take all the food collected back to a postal station, sort and then deliver the items to an area food bank or pantry.

*Important Note:  Please donate items like canned meats, fish, soup, vegetables; bottled juice, pasta, cereal and rice that do not require refrigeration.  Please do not include items that have expired or are in glass containers.

Get more info about the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive