A special delivery

MOSES LAKE — It was a decent day for the mail on Saturday, according to Lindee Long, a supervisor at the United States Post Service branch in Moses Lake.

Long explained that means the mail was light.

"It makes it a little easier on the carrier," she said.

But while Long said the mail going out may have been lighter than usual — and Saturday isn't always a light delivery day, she added — the mail carriers on the 26 routes that go out from the main post office in downtown Moses Lake are bringing a little extra in.

Bags of non-perishable food were brought in bulging with food to help families in need. Usually left in or beside mailboxes, the food was part of the national food drive called Stamp Out Hunger held annually on the second Saturday in May since 1983, with few exceptions. The event is held by the National Association of Letter Carriers, the union which represents the nation's postal delivery workers.

"It's very important," Long said. "All the carriers, they enjoy doing it. We haven't done it for a couple of years because of COVID-19, but they were really super excited to do it again this year."

The event shows how involved mail workers are in the communities they serve, according to an NALC press release.

"Letter carriers are a part of every neighborhood in the nation," NALC President Fredric Rolando said in the release, "And we see the growing need for food assistance in our communities. On Saturday, May 14, NALC invites everyone to participate in the annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. Together, we can help stamp out hunger in America."

Food donations were collected by the Moses Lake Food Bank, which collects and distributes food to food banks and pantries in five counties, according to Warehouse Manager John Holland.

According to Holland, the food drive — one of many held by the food bank and others in the community over the course of a year — is a big deal.

"A lot of our food banks depend on the food we bring in from small food drives we do every year," he said as he leaned on a large cardboard container rapidly filling up with collections by mail carriers. "

Gary Schleppenbach, a long-time mail carrier and head of the local branch of the letter carriers union, said he did particularly well on Saturday, primarily because as union head, he said he is going to be able to give a donation from the union's benevolence fund to the food bank.

"In addition to the food that other people are bringing, we're donating $1,000 from our union," he said.

Holland said the food bank would not have a full count on how much food was donated until Monday afternoon.

“It all goes to the needy people who use the food bank,” he said.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com