‘Stamp Out Hunger’ Food Drive is Saturday

The National Association of Letter Carriers will hold their annual “Stamp Out Hunger” Food drive Saturday, May 10.

Locally, that means if you leave a bag of healthy, non-perishable food by your mail box this Saturday, it will get picked up by volunteers and delivered to Open Door and Salvation Army food pantries.

The NALC said this is the nation’s largest one-day food drive, and you can be a part of it.

Blue bags were left in your mailbox on Wednesday for that very purpose.

According to United Way of Pettis County, you can “fill them with non-perishable food and set them out early on the 10th. Volunteers will drive around to collect them. Volunteers are still needed. If you would like to help collect food, please call Jamie at (660) 827-1613.”

Donated funds will also be accepted, just scan the QR code.

All the collected food and funds will stay here in Pettis County and be divided between Open Door Service Center and Salvation Army.

“This is one of the biggest food drives of the year and it's all thanks to everyone in the community,” the United Way said on Facebook.

In 2023, 47.4 million people in the US lived in food-insecure households. This includes 7.2 million children and 12.2 million adults. Furthermore, 841,000 children experienced very low food security. A significant portion of these households, 13.5%, faced difficulty providing enough food for their family members.

The Stamp Out Hunger food drive has been in existence for 31 years. It started as a pilot program in 1991 and became a nationwide effort in 1993. The first nationwide food drive was in 1993. The drive is always held on the second Saturday in May.