Knox County residents invited to participate in nation’s largest one-day food drive on May 11
The National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) is holding its 27th annual food drive “Stamp Out Hunger®” this Saturday, May 11, and Knoxville Branch 419 is participating. Letter carriers throughout Knox County will collect nonperishable food donations from homes as they deliver mail along postal routes. The food will later be delivered to Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee and its agency partners. This food will be distributed across Second Harvest’s 18-county service area. The NALC food drive is the largest food drive in the country!
NALC Food Drive cards will be placed in mailboxes in the week leading up to the national food drive on May 11. Bags of nonperishable food donations are to be left under or around mailboxes to be picked up by City and Rural Letter Carriers. Participants are encouraged to have their donations in place by their mailboxes before 9 a.m. on Saturday, May 11. If a donation is missed by a letter carrier, donors are asked to place their donations by their mailboxes again on Monday, May 13, as carriers will pick up donations then as well.
According to the NALC, donations should not include: frozen food, homemade food or home canned food items. Suggested food items for donation include: pasta, canned meals, peanut butter, macaroni and cheese, 100 percent juice and canned/dry beans. Donors are asked to avoid donating individual baby food items because of increased contamination risks and processing requirements.
“For the past 27 years, we have partnered with the letter carriers, and each year they help Second Harvest provide thousands of meals to the hungry in East Tennessee,” said Executive Director Elaine Streno. “We are grateful for the continued efforts they make towards creating awareness and supporting our hunger relief efforts in our area. We hope Knox County citizens will help the NALC Stamp Out Hunger®.”
In 2016, the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive collected 71.6 million pounds of food across the country to be donated to local food banks. More information about the National Association of Letter Carriers and the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive can be found online at www.nnalc.org/community-service/fooddrive. The Stamp Out Food Drive also has a site on Facebook and on Twitter at @StampOutHunger.
