Letter carriers to collect items for food banks

Letter carriers will collect food donations May 13 as they deliver mail.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Local members of the National Association of Letter Carriers will help kick off the national association's annual food drive at 11 a.m. May 8 at the city's main post office, 99 S. Walnut St.
Youngstown Postmaster Larry Minniear and Diana Kady, food drive coordinator, have invited Congressmen Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, and Ted Strickland of Lisbon, D-6th, Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams and Warren Mayor Mike O'Brien to help letter carriers emphasize the need to help stamp out hunger in the Mahoning Valley.
She said Youngstown members will join letter carriers across the United States on May 13, collecting nonperishable food for area food banks and food pantries as they deliver mail.
Distributed locally
Kady said food collected by Youngstown letter carriers will be distributed among St. Vincent DePaul Society, The Salvation Army, Gleaners Food Bank and Second Harvest Food Bank.
The national food drive is sponsored by the National Association of Letter Carriers, The U.S. Postal Service, Campbell Soup Company, the United Way, AFL-CIO, Valpk and America's Second Harvest.
Campbell Soup officials said people who want to participate in the food drive can simply leave a grocery bag containing nonperishable foods such as canned soup, canned vegetables, pasta, rice or cereal, next to their mailboxes. Letter carriers will do the rest, collecting the donations and delivering them to food banks and food pantries.