Stamp Out Hunger Saturday with a Pick-up for Your Mail Carrier

On Saturday, May 12, Marin residents partner with their  mail carriers to support their local food bank and help “Stamp Out Hunger” in the county.

Now in its 20th year, the Stamp Out Hunger food drive takes place across the nation and is the largest single-day effort to combat hunger in America.

“This is by far our largest single-day food drive of the year,” Paul Ash, executive director of the San Francisco and Marin Food Banks, said in a statement. “We expect to bring in about 135,000 pounds of food in Marin, and that’s going to feed a lot of hungry people across the county.”

To participate, residents are asked to place a sturdy bag of non-perishable food by their mailbox before their mail is delivered on Saturday, May 12. Click here for more information.

Recommended food items include peanut butter, pasta, rice, low-sugar cereal, and canned foods such as tuna, meat, soups, beans and vegetables. Letter carriers will collect the bags of food and deliver them to the Food Bank to be distributed to people in need throughout the community.

The number of low-income people at risk of hunger in Marin County has increased dramatically during the recession over the last few years, doubling from 9 percent in 2007 to 18.5 percent in 2009. This year, the San Francisco and Marin Food Banks will distribute more than five million pounds of food to at least 20,000 individuals throughout Marin county.

“There are thousands of children, seniors and adults in Marin who regularly face days without enough nutritious food to sustain them,” Ash explains. “The Stamp Out Hunger food drive is critical in helping the Food Bank meet the needs of Marin’s low-income residents, especially during the summer months when many kids lose the benefit of school lunch programs.

"We really appreciate the work of the letter carriers and everyone that donates," Ash added. "They’re truly making a difference.”

The National Association of Letter Carriers is the union of city delivery letter carriers working for the United States Postal Service founded in 1889. Today, the NALC has more 300,000 members in all 50 states and other U.S. jurisdictions.