USPS Letter Carriers cub scouts, 4H kids and volunteers will be picking up your donations for the local food pantry on Saturday, May 12th. At this time the Food Pantry is currently in need of canned meat, soup, paper towels, toilet paper, hot and/or cold cereal, jello, bottles of shampoo, dish soap and bath soap. Currently they do not need canned vegetables or canned fruit. Please have your sacks of donations out by your mailbox by 8:30 a.m. Volunteers will meet at the UCC Church at 8:30 a.m. Financial donations are welcome also. Let’s be a part of this opportunity to give!

STAMP OUT HUNGER 2012

Food Drive Fact Sheet

On Saturday, May 12, 2012, Campbell Soup Company will team up with the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) to collect food donations in order to provide assistance to the millions of Americans who are struggling with hunger each and every day.

Beyond the Call of Duty…

The Stamp Out Hunger food drive is a nationwide effort that provides food to local food banks and pantries that would otherwise be faced with depleted stocks during the summer months. Food banks across the country continue to experience record demand for emergency food assistance.

The nation’s 210,000 letter carriers will collect food donations left at the mailboxes of generous Americans in more than 10,000 communities and deliver them to food banks and other hunger relief organizations.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the Stamp Out Hunger food drive is the nation’s largest single-day food drive, having collected more than one billion pounds of food since its inception in 1993. In 2011, generous Americans donated 70.2 million pounds of food, which marked the eighth consecutive year that at least 70 million pounds were collected.

Campbell Soup Company will kick off this year’s food drive with a pledge to donate one million pounds of food to Feeding America.

The Face of Hunger

Despite the generosity of millions of Americans who have supported the letter carriers’ food drive in previous years, the need for food assistance has never been greater. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s annual study measuring food security in the United States, the number of Americans living in food insecure homes was nearly 49 million in 2011, and one in five of these people was a child (16 million).

A recent survey conducted by Feeding America, the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief organization, found that nearly half (46 percent) of households served reported having to choose between paying a utility bill or purchasing food.

You Can Help…

Helping Stamp Out Hunger is as easy as checking your mailbox. Just leave a bag of non-perishable food where your letter carrier normally delivers your mail on Saturday, May 12. Your letter carrier will then pick up and deliver the food to a local food bank. Examples of non-perishable items include:

o Canned soup

o Canned meats and fish

o Canned vegetables, fruits and juices

o Boxed goods (such as cereal)

o Pasta and rice

For more information about the annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive, ask your letter carrier, contact your local post office or visit either www.helpstampouthunger.com or www.facebook.com/StampOutHunger, and follow the drive at www.twitter.com/StampOutHunger.