POSTAL UNION Letter carriers will collect food donations on routes

Locally, 162,000 pounds of food were collected in 2005.
YOUNGSTOWN -- The National Association of Letter Carriers will conduct its 14th annual National Food Drive to "Stamp Out Hunger" on Saturday, when letter carriers will collect food donations as they deliver mail along their postal routes.
Locally, the event will be conducted throughout Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties by NALC Branch 385.
Donations from postal customers will be collected by nearly 1,500 local branches of the 300,000-member postal union, involving more than 10,000 cities and towns across the country.
To participate in the food drive, area residents may leave nonperishable food donations in a bag near their mailbox Saturday before the arrival of their letter carrier. The food items will be picked up by the carriers during their regular route, Postal Service officials said.
The food products collected will be divided among local food pantries. This project is coordinated locally by Letter Carriers Branch 385, the Postal Service, Youngstown/Mahoning Valley United Way, AFL-CIO Community Services, and Teamsters Local 377.
Last year's campaign
The NALC Food Drive, conducted annually on the second Saturday in May, is the nation's largest one-day food drive, with a record collection of 71.3 million pounds of food last year. Locally, 162,000 pounds of food were collected in 2005, officials said.
More than 115 million post cards, sponsored by the Campbell Soup Co. and the Postal Service, are being mailed to postal customers to remind them of the drive. The post cards feature a cartoon by "Family Circus" artist Bil Keane.
This drive provides local food banks, pantries and shelters with food donations from postal customers at a critical time of the year and makes a crucial difference in the lives of thousands of hungry children and adults during the summer months, said JoAnn Stock, director of resource development and marketing for the Youngstown/Mahoning Valley United Way.