It is a sad sign of the times, but when Letter Carriers President Fredric Rolando announced his union would mount its annual food drive on May 14, he cited a federal report showing record numbers of hungry people in the United States.
The report, from the Agriculture Department, says approximately 50 million people – almost one in six – live in homes with insufficient amounts of food. Just over one-third of them are kids.
In short, 17 million children and 33 million adults go to bed hungry.
To help alleviate that national calamity, NALC over the years has collected non-perishable foods on the second Saturday in May at post offices nationwide and by having carriers pick up donations. Letter Carriers in many Minnesota communities will be part of this massive effort.
To participate, put your nonperishable food donations at your mailbox Saturday morning for carriers to pick up.
Last year’s collection, a record 77.1 million pounds, pushed the cumulative total of the Letter Carriers’ drive to more than 1 billion pounds. The food is redistributed from local post offices to local food banks, soup kitchens and other facilities that feed the hungry, and those charities, in turn, have come to depend on the donations.
With hunger spreading, Rolando said the union “must ratchet up efforts for local promotion” of food donations.
"Letter Carriers have never backed away from a challenge,” he said. “Millions of Americans depend on the food we collect to help carry them through the summer months. We cannot – we must not – let them down.”
Rolando also said the NALC is enlisting schools, churches, civic groups, local governments, area businesses and news media for support. The food drive has a growing list of national and regional co-sponsors, including Campbell’s Soup, ValPak, the Postal Service and the AFL-CIO. Celebrities have taped public service ads and Bil and Jeff Keane, creators of the “Family Circus” comic strip, donated a new promotional panel.
This article was written by Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
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It is a sad sign of the times, but when Letter Carriers President Fredric Rolando announced his union would mount its annual food drive on May 14, he cited a federal report showing record numbers of hungry people in the United States.
The report, from the Agriculture Department, says approximately 50 million people – almost one in six – live in homes with insufficient amounts of food. Just over one-third of them are kids.
In short, 17 million children and 33 million adults go to bed hungry.
To help alleviate that national calamity, NALC over the years has collected non-perishable foods on the second Saturday in May at post offices nationwide and by having carriers pick up donations. Letter Carriers in many Minnesota communities will be part of this massive effort.
To participate, put your nonperishable food donations at your mailbox Saturday morning for carriers to pick up.
Last year’s collection, a record 77.1 million pounds, pushed the cumulative total of the Letter Carriers’ drive to more than 1 billion pounds. The food is redistributed from local post offices to local food banks, soup kitchens and other facilities that feed the hungry, and those charities, in turn, have come to depend on the donations.
With hunger spreading, Rolando said the union “must ratchet up efforts for local promotion” of food donations.
"Letter Carriers have never backed away from a challenge,” he said. “Millions of Americans depend on the food we collect to help carry them through the summer months. We cannot – we must not – let them down.”
Rolando also said the NALC is enlisting schools, churches, civic groups, local governments, area businesses and news media for support. The food drive has a growing list of national and regional co-sponsors, including Campbell’s Soup, ValPak, the Postal Service and the AFL-CIO. Celebrities have taped public service ads and Bil and Jeff Keane, creators of the “Family Circus” comic strip, donated a new promotional panel.
This article was written by Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.