On that day, local letter carriers will collect non-perishable donations from homes as they deliver the mail as part of National Association of Letter Carriers 18th annual National Food Drive.
Scott Densmore, a Calhoun mail carrier, said postal customers can leave canned goods and non-perishable food items in or around their mail boxes on that day and the items will be picked up as carriers travel their routes.
“All of the food collected in Gordon County will stay here to help the Voluntary Action Center’s food pantry,” Densmore said. “We’ll make sure it gets to where it needs to go.”
Last year, mail carriers collected a record 73.4 million pounds of food nationwide. The drive is held annually on the second Saturday in May in over 10,000 cities and towns in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam.
Donations from this year’s drive are expected to push the overall total since the annual drive began 18 years ago to over 1 billion pounds. The total currently is 982.7 million pounds.
Donations will be collected by more than 1,400 local branches of the 295,000-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 and thousands of civic volunteers.
National Association of Letter Carriers President Fredric V. Rolando emphasized that as successful as the food drive has been in the past, it simply must be even better this year.
“Millions and millions of families are suffering — struggling to make ends meet and put food on the table,” Rolando said. “Food banks, pantries and shelters need our help more than ever this year. As families count on them for support, they’re counting on us and we will not back off on our commitment.”
Over 125 million postcards, sponsored by the Campbell Soup Company and the U.S. Postal Service, will be mailed to postal customers to remind them of the drive.
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