Letter carriers join food drive effort

BY JENNIFER BAILEY
Commercial-News

DANVILLE May 09, 2008 11:26 am

— If everyone in Danville put out just one can of food to be collected by their mail carrier on Saturday, it would fill the Danville Area Food Pantry for two months.
Chuck Brooks, chairman of the pantry located downtown on Walnut Street, said the need for food “is increasing all year. We’ve been seeing about 60 new families a month who’ve not been here before.”
Saturday marks the 14th year nationwide the National Association of Letter Carriers will conduct its Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive.
Stamp Out Hunger is the nation’s largest annual single-day food drive.
Letter carriers in more than 10,000 communities will collect food items and deliver them to local food banks to help some of the millions of Americans, including an estimated 13 million children, who face hunger every day.
Since 1993, families have donated more than a half-billion pounds of food to Stamp Out Hunger.
To help out, simply place nonperishable food items like canned meats and fish, canned soup, juice, pasta, vegetables, cereal and rice in a bag next to your mailbox on Saturday.
Officials ask that out-of-date items and those in glass containers not be left out.
Letter carriers will pick up the items and deliver them to local food banks.
The event, created by the National Association of Letter Carriers in conjunction with the U.S. Postal Service and the AFL-CIO, delivered more than 70 million pounds of food last year, according to the event’s Web site.
“It’s been very well received here in Danville,” Danville Postmaster Mike Hicks said. “People in town are more than happy to give.”
If a family has a large amount of food to donate, boxes can be set out by the street, you can call the post office for a special pick-up or the items can be dropped off at the post office.
Jean Faw, representative with the National Association of Letter Carriers’ Branch 825, said the local union branch will have about 90 letter carriers picking up food items in the Danville, Westville, Georgetown, Chrisman, Paris and Charleston areas.
Faw emphasizes that the food collected remains in the area.
Food in Danville will be taken to the Danville Area Food Pantry. Food collected in the other communities will be taken to their respective food pantries, she said.
There are no overhead costs. The food collected Saturday will start being distributed Monday.
“It goes directly from one consumer to another,” Faw said.
The food drive last year saw 12 tons of food donated. The highest has been 16 tons, she said.
“Don’t be afraid of burdening your letter carriers,” she said.
She hopes more households participate this year because the need is greater.
Faw said joblessness has risen in Vermilion County and there is more of a need at the food pantry.
Brooks added that utility bill increases haven’t helped with family’s budgets and the food pantry also has seen a big increase in senior citizens come in who are on a fixed income and have children and/or grandchildren living with them.
In 2007, the Danville Area Food Pantry served more than 3,500 families or 8,116 individuals. It had almost 700 new families that had never been to the food pantry before.
Families who meet qualifications can come to the food pantry once every 60 days for food.
The pantry is open from 1:30-3:30 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Brooks said the pantry’s goal is to help as many people as it can. Churches, unions and others also donate food.
“Our goal is to have the same food there at the first or end of the month. We don’t ever run out,” he said.
If the pantry doesn’t have enough food, such as if it’s not gotten enough peanut butter in stock, it is a partner with County Market to purchase items at discounted prices.
Brooks said the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive helps stretch what limited money the pantry receives.
“It allows us to take a month off (from purchasing items),” he said. “We can’t thank (donors) enough.”
The pantry spends more than $30,000 a year on food with money it receives from a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant and other church and organization donations.