Help Stamp Out Hunger on Saturday

(KNSI) – The National Letter Carriers Association’s Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is Saturday. If you put out nonperishable food items, both canned and boxed goods, by your mailbox, they’ll get picked up when the Postal Service makes its first-class mail delivery in the morning. Stamp Out Hunger is the largest one-day event of its kind.

Everything collected will go to two area charities. Catholic Charities Emergency Services Program Manager Susan Hanks says, “We partner with Salvation Army. The two of us come together and they have one drop site and then we split donations. So, it goes to both programs.”

The letter carriers, charity staff, and volunteers all have separate roles to play in the overall collection process. Hanks says this is the first time the drive has happened in central Minnesota since before the pandemic. It comes at a critical time.

“As you can see yourself when you go to the grocery store, you see some shelves are empty. So, there is scarcity to some particular products, but just in general it [food bank supplies] is down, so all the more need to participate and be a part of this food drive,” she says.

Hanks says demand is high year-round, but summer and holidays represent some of the busiest times. During summer vacation students lose the safety net provided by the School Lunch program. She says that high inflation is also pushing people to need assistance.

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