The rural postal carriers in Windham County will hold their annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive Saturday, May 9, to benefit local food pantries.
As carriers make their rounds on Saturday, they will pick up non-perishable food items that their rural customers leave in bags by their mail boxes.
Suggested items to donate are canned meats, fish, soup, juice, and vegetables; and pasta, cereal, and rice. Food items should be in non-breakable containers, such as boxes and cans. Expired items cannot be accepted.
Nationally, individuals donated more than 72 million pounds of food for this initiative. That marked the 11th consecutive year that at least 70 million pounds were collected.
Now in its 23rd year, Stamp Out Hunger is a program of the National Association of Letter Carriers and is the nation's largest single-day food drive.
Unfortunately, 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, nearly 50 million Americans are living in food insecure homes, including 17 million children, or one in four.