Letter carriers will be picking up as well as dropping off this Saturday during the 25th annual Stamp Out Hunger event. The letter carrier’s food drive has become the largest single-day food drive across the nation, and benefits millions of Americans who struggle to put food on the table.
"Please! We encourage everyone, please be sure you put your non-perishable food items out at your mailbox on May 13, [this] Saturday" said De De Flounlacker, Executive Director of Manna Food Panties. She says the food collected Saturday will go a long way towards refilling the shelves not only at manna, but at other organizations that help feed the hungry in the area. "I can tell you that our inventory definitely needs it, and I believe that everybody else's in our community needs that support, too."
In addition to Manna, the food drive will benefit Warrington Emergency Aid Center, Feeding the Gulf Coast in Pace and Milton, ACTS Ministry of Holley Assembly of God in Gulf Breeze, and We Care Ministries of Navarre United Methodist Church. Last year, the organizations received a total of 72,367 pounds of food from the drive.
The letter carriers are encouraging people to leave a sturdy bag of non-perishable foods next to their mailbox prior regular mail delivery on Saturday. Phillip Skipper, President of the National Association of Letter Carriers Northwest Florida Branch 321 says it’s a day that the local letter carriers look forward to. "Every year [this is] our day. So the guys are excited about helping give back to the community. And what better way to do that then to pick [those food items] up by the mailbox and take it down and deliver it to those who need it."
If you’re headed to the store to get some items to leave out this Saturday, De De Flounlacker says there are some items that give the biggest nutritional bang for the buck. "We need peanut butter, canned fruit in its own juice, we also need canned chicken, canned tuna. We need one pound bags of rice and one pound bags of dried beans."
Again, the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is this Saturday, May 13. Be sure to leave your bag of food out before your letter carrier usually arrives.