An estimated 30 million people face hunger every day in America-including more than 12 million children. This weekend, letter carriers here on Kaua‘i are going to put a dent in that number. On Saturday, letter carriers in more than 10,000
An estimated 30 million people face hunger every day in America-including more than 12 million children.
This weekend, letter carriers here on Kaua‘i are going to put a dent in that number.
On Saturday, letter carriers in more than 10,000 cities and towns across America — from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands — will collect non-perishable food items donated by customers.
They will be participating in the 14th annual National Association of Letter Carriers Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive.
USPS employees on Kaua‘i will collect food and deliver it to the Kauai Food Bank. Donations will also ba accepted at post offices around the island.
Suggested items are canned meats and fish, canned soup, cereal and rice. No glass containers will be collected.
“The United States Postal Service is proud to support our nation’s letter carriers and the generosity of customers to enable the collection of millions of pounds of food to replenish community food banks and feed the needy,” said Postmaster General Jack Potter, in a press release.
In 2005, the drive collected a record 71.3 million pounds nationwide for the hungry, making the total amount of donations to community food banks and pantries from the food drive over the last 13 years well over a half million pounds.
More than 115 million postcards were mailed to customers asking them to place non-perishable food items next to their mailbox before their letter carrier delivers the mail this Saturday.
The letter carrier will do the rest, taking the food to the Post Office where it is sorted and picked up by the Kauai Food Bank.
Last year Kauai residents donated 4,153 pounds for the food bank.