Post Office’s across the valley will be collecting food on Saturday May13 to stamp out hungere.
LOGAN – Utah families have a chance to help the U.S. Postal Service give back to their community by helping their patrons donate to food pantries across the country.
Each year on the second Saturday in May, letter carriers across the country collect non-perishable food donations from their customers. These donations go directly to local food pantries to provide for families in their own community in need of help, and the need is great this year.
The 31st annual Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive will be held this Saturday, May 13.
Katie Evertsen, the Postmaster for the Logan Post Office, said there are currently more than 35 million Americans unsure where their next meal is coming from.
“More than 12 million are children who feel hunger’s impact on their overall health and ability to perform in school,” she said. “And nearly 5.2 million seniors over age 60 are food insecure, with many who live on fixed incomes often too embarrassed to ask for help.”
This food drive’s timing is crucial. Food Banks and pantries often receive the majority of their donations during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday seasons. By springtime, many pantries are depleted, entering the summer low on supplies at a time when many school breakfast and lunch programs are not available to children in need.
Participating in this year’s Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is simple.
“Just leave a non-perishable food donation in a bag by your mailbox on Saturday, May 13 and your letter carrier will do the rest,” Evertsen said. “With your help, letter carriers and the U.S. Postal Service have collected over 1.82 billion pounds of food in the United States over the 30 years as a national food drive.”
Matt Whitaker, the administrator for Cache Community Food Pantry, said there are no blue bags for food donations this year like they have had in the past.
“Lee’s Grocery Stores generously donated bags to use for this year’s drive,” Whitaker said. “We appreciate the food drive this time of year. This one and the last one in March will help keep us stocked through the summer.”
The economy is forcing more families to rely on assistance from the Cache Community Food Pantry. The number of families the pantry is helping continues to grow. Currently, they have nearly 1,000 families a month they are helping.
“We have 25 other agencies we serve, places like Cache Employment (and Training), CAPSA, Common Ground (Outdoor Adventures), several churches,” Whitaker said. “We have eight different senior citizen centers that come to us for help.”
The Post Office would like people leave non-perishable food and perishable food near their mailbox no later than 9 a.m. on Saturday.
“We appreciate the food donations,” he said. “We yield about 40,000 pounds from the Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive.”
Nearly 300,000 Utahns are facing hunger and local letter carriers will collect and deliver food donations to Cache Food Pantry.
“People in Cache Valley are amazing,” he said. ”People are generally pretty generous and step up to fill our needs.”
The Cache Food Pantry is part of a statewide network of 216 partner agencies. All donations will be distributed to food pantries located in the community where the donation is made.