Letter Carriers’ Annual Food Drive Happens Tomorrow

Almost every year, letter carriers do more than deliver the mail on the second Saturday of May. They also collect nonperishable food as part of the annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive.

“It’s just a really good cause,” explains Lowell Postmaster Christine Lackscheide. “We’re excited to do it this year.”

After the COVID-19 pandemic put a pause on normal collection activities, the 2022 drive will once again have letter carriers picking up food from area mailboxes. For those who prefer to drop off their donations, there will be a drop-off bin in the Lowell Post Office, Lacksheide says.

Every post office donates the items it collects to a local organization, and in Lowell, that organization is Flat River Outreach Ministries. The timing this year works out perfectly with FROM being in the middle of its annual Food Fight.

The Lowell Post Office has three city routes and nine rural routes from which food will be collected for FROM. Rural customers can put food inside their mailbox for collection. Be sure to raise your mailbox’s flag so your carrier will stop, and Lackscheide suggests people put their items in a bag to make it easy for your carrier to gather the items.

City residents can also put food in a bag near their mailbox or on their porch. However, Lacksheide recommends attaching a note or writing on the bag that the items are for the food drive so carriers don’t confuse donations with any grocery deliveries.

Any unopened, nonperishable food will be accepted, and suggested items include the following:

  • Canned goods
  • Pasta such as lasagna noodles
  • 100% fruit juice
  • Soap
  • Shampoo
  • Personal care items

Organized by the National Association of Letter Carriers, the Stamp Out Hunger food drive is one more way postal workers give back to the communities they serve. “We all just want to help out,” Lackscheide says.

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