The 24th Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive takes place on Saturday, May 14th!
According to the Food Bank of Delaware:
- there are 122, 310 food insecure Delawareans;
- 71% have to choose between groceries or utilities.
Most of us tend to remember to donate food around the holidays, when we pick up the ingredients for our own Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter feasts, but the need is year round. Late spring is when those holiday reserves start to run out.
It’s also important to note that many of those considered food insecure are kids, and they are about to leave school for the summer. They may rely on those school breakfasts and lunches to keep from being hungry.
The letter carriers of America are making it super easy to donate to the Food Bank of Delaware to help the hungry. Just place a bag full of food outside your mailbox on Saturday, Math 14th prior to mail delivery— a special Food Lion Feeds donation bag that will even be mailed to you prior to the drive, although you don’t have to use that bag to donate.
There are also some volunteer spots at local post offices that need filling. This just involves helping to transfer the donations from the mail carriers’ trucks to the Food Bank’s trucks for a few hours on May 14th. You can sign up for that here.
Not convinced this drive can make a difference? The Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is the largest one-day food drive in America: last year more than 70 million pounds of non-perishable food were collected.
All food collected stays local.
Here’s what the food bank lists as most needed (low-sodium and low-sugar when possible):
- Hot and Cold Cereals
- Peanut Butter
- Canned Fruits
- Canned Meats
- 8oz Shelf-Stable Milk
- Canned Vegetables
- Spaghetti Sauce
Obviously, everything should be unopened and unexpired. Don’t use this as an opportunity to spring clean your pantry of foods that should have been tossed years ago.
If you’re unable to leave a bag of donations on the 14th, you can always make a monetary donation (for every $1 donated, 91 cents goes directly to feeding hungry adults and children in the community), drop donations off directly at the food bank’s Newark or Milton location, or you can order food items via Amazon to be delivered to the warehouse. Here’s their wishlist.
If you’re a green thumb, you can also “plant a row” for the hungry and donate your surplus produce.
And if you’d like to make a larger impact, here’s more ways you can get involved to Stamp Out Hunger.
Saturday May 14th! Don’t forget!
