'Stamp Out Hunger' Drive collects more than 9,000 pounds of food
Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald Letter carriers collected donations of food for the annual ‘Stamp Out Hunger’ campaign Saturday.
MOSES LAKE — Postal Service letter carriers collected more than 9,000 pounds of food Saturday in the annual “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive.
At least that’s the amount so far. A few donations usually keep coming in for up to a week after the official food drive, said Tina Kunjara, who’s the Moses Lake organizer for “Stamp Out Hunger.”
The donations collected by Moses Lake letter carriers go to the Moses Lake Food Bank, and on Monday morning food bank workers and volunteers weighed and sorted it. Food bank director Peny Archer said the 2018 Stamp Out Hunger produced 9,420 pounds of cans, boxes and bags of non-perishable food.
That’s about equal to 2016, the last year for which Kunjara had records. That’s down a little bit from some of the peak years, she said.
Stamp Out Hunger is in its 26th year and is a nationwide project for National Association of Letter Carriers. It’s scheduled for spring, Kunjara said, because traditionally spring is a time when donations are down and summer is around the corner. “Food banks and pantries often receive the majority of their donations during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday seasons. By springtime, many pantries are depleted, entering the summer low on supplies,” she wrote.
While kids have access to summer food programs, many kids are eating more meals at home during summer, Archer said. And kids eat a lot. Growing kids need the calories, so they’re “eating machines,” Archer said.
As a result “kid-friendly food is welcome,” she said, foods like microwaveable soups, entrees that are easy to heat up, bread and ingredients for sandwiches and similar items. And hot dogs - the food bank can and does accept donations of hot dogs. “We have plenty of refrigerator and freezer capacity,” Archer said.
“Something we rarely get is jelly and jam.” The food bank gets a lot of peanut butter donated, but the jelly and jam to accompany it is donated far less often, she said.
The Moses Lake Food Bank facility is open for donations from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Food is distributed from 11 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Monday through Thursday, Archer said.