The National Association of Letter Carriers and the United States Postal Service will hold the 25th-annual “Stamp Out Hunger” campaign Saturday, the country’s largest single-day food drive.
Postal carriers across the country will collect nonperishable food items donated by generous homeowners. On Long Island, all food collected will help Island Harvest Food Bank to provide supplemental food support to the more than 316,000 Long Islanders who are at risk of hunger and food insecurity.
To participate in “Stamp Out Hunger,” leave nonperishable food items, such as canned goods, cereal, pasta, rice, boxed juices and shelf-stable milk (please, no glass items), next to your mailbox before your regularly scheduled mail delivery on Saturday. Your USPS letter carrier will do the rest. All food donated will help replenish Island Harvest Food Bank’s network of food pantries, soup kitchens and other emergency feeding programs in Nassau and Suffolk counties.
“Every donation, no matter how small, will help us serve those of our neighbors who are struggling to put food on their tables,” said Randi Shubin Dresner, president and CEO of Island Harvest Food Bank.
“Letter carriers have a unique relationship with the community,” National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 6000 president Walter Barton said. “We often see the need for food assistance firsthand.”
In the past 25 years, he said, letter carriers have collected 1.5 billion pounds of food nationally for distribution. Last year, Stamp Out Hunger netted 80.1 million pounds of food in 10,000 cities and towns, and in all 50 states. In 2016, Long Islanders donated 471,553 pounds of food, which supplemented 392,963 meals, to Stamp Out Hunger. That generosity made Long Island one of the top-ten food collection regions.
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