Help the hungry during post office food drive on May 14

MOSES LAKE — Local letter carriers will be teaming up with letter carriers across the country on May 14 for the largest one-day food drive in the nation.

The National Association of Letter Carriers’ (NALC) food drive, dubbed “Stamp Out Hunger,” is readily approaching and organizers are looking for food donations from locals. Last year’s nationwide drive collected 71 million pounds of food and was the 12th consecutive year that carriers collected more than 70 million pounds of food. Over the years the drive has netted more than 1.4 billion pounds of food, according to the NALC’s website.

Stamp Out Hunger has traditionally been held on the second Saturday in May, as hunger-relief advocates usually see food supplies collected during winter holiday drives start to dwindle. The drive also comes before many school districts end their academic years, which often means a suspension in subsidized meals for students, according to the NALC.

People can participate in the food drive by placing non-perishable food items in, on, or near their mailbox on May 14, with local letter/rural carriers picking up the items and taking them to a local food bank. Food donations can also be taken to local post offices.

— Staff report