Press release from the United Way:
Letter Carriers Challenge Community to Collect More than 400,000 Pounds of Food
Area letter carriers and students at Abbett and Study elementary schools are challenging the community to contribute to this year’s Letter Carriers’ Food Drive set for Saturday, May 9, 2009.
Students at Abbett and Study elementaries are holding contests to see who can collect the most canned goods to distribute to local food banks. The winning classes will be recognized by local letter carriers.
Melton Gray, the local chair of the Letter Carriers’ Food Drive, hopes the Fort Wayne-area collects more than 400,000 pounds of food this year; last year the area collected 352,000 pounds. For the last few years, the Fort Wayne branch of the Letter Carriers union has ranked second in the nation for the most pounds of food collected compared with other branches of the same size.
The 17th annual National Association of Letter Carriers’ (NALC) National Food Drive to “Stamp Out Hunger” is the largest one-day food drive in the nation. Carriers collected a record 73.1 million pounds of food in last year’s drive. The drive is held annually on the second Saturday in May in more than 10,000 cities and towns in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Donations will be collected by more than 1,400 local branches of the 300,000-member postal union and delivered to food banks, pantries and shelters that serve the communities where they are collected. Assisting in the effort are rural letter carriers and other postal employees, as well as members of other unions and thousands of civic volunteers.
Partners in the local and national effort include the National Association of Letter Carriers, the U.S. Postal Service, Campbell Soup Company, Feeding America, United Way of America and the AFL-CIO.
To help out, residents should place their donation of non-perishable items in a grocery bag next to their mailbox.
Volunteers are needed to help collect donations in some of the rural areas. Anyone with a truck or van who is willing to help should call Melton Gray at 260.249.9008.
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