The Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is a charitable initiative conducted by the National Association of Letter Carriers in the United States to make significant donations of food to organizations serving needy persons.
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History
The Stamp out Hunger Food Drive started in October 1991 as a pilot program, the initial drive taking place in ten cities across the country. After receiving input from food banks and pantries, The National Association of Letter Carriers decided that the best time of year for this food drive to take place would be in the late spring. Most food banks start running out of food this time of year due to the largest donations being made around Thanksgiving and Christmas.
A revamped food drive was organized for May 15, 1993, which was the second Saturday in May. The goal for the organization was to have at least one branch of the National Association of Letter Carriers participate from all 50 states. The first year of the nationwide effort collected over 11 million pounds of food, which was a one-day record in the United States, and with more than 220 union branches covering more than 1,000 communities participating. In 2010, 77.1 million pounds of food were collected, which helped the food drive surpass the 1 billion pound mark in total food collected over its history.
How it Works
The Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is held in all 50 states every year on the second Saturday of May: on this day, mail carriers both deliver mail and collect food donations. It is held in May because most food banks face a depletion in donations from the holiday season. Today, the Stamp Out Hunger effort is the United States’ largest single-day food drive.
Impact
The drive has delivered more than one billion pounds of donated food to food banks and pantries over the past 20 years. In 2011 letter carriers collected 70.2 million pounds of food, which raised the total amount of donations over the history of the food drive to more than 1.1 billion pounds which led to the 8th consecutive year of collecting more than 70 million pounds of food in one day. The NALC food drive has also received two Presidential Certificates of Achievement.
Anniversary Drive
2012 marked the 20th anniversary of feeding the hungry.
Partnerships
The Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive has many supporters including The U.S. Postal Service, Campbell Soup Company, Cox Target Media, Valpak,the National Rural Letter Carriers Association, the Feeding America food bank network, the United Way of America and its local United Ways, the AFL-CIO Community Services network, Uncle Bob's Self Storage, and AARP.
Donations
The Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive will take donations of nonperishable foods in non-breakable containers such as cereals, dry milk, cereal bars, baby formula, canned fruit, canned vegetables, canned meats and fish, boxed or canned juices, canned soups, peanut butter, boxed instant food, pasta/boxed pasta, boxed rice and dried beans.