Letter Carriers Doing Their Part to Stamp Out Hunger

Food you give your mail carrier May 12 for the annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive will benefit local food pantries. This national effort, spearheaded by the U.S. Postal Service, gives food pantries a boost after traditional holiday donations are depleted, and as summer donations dip.

The food pantries at St. Francis Xavier and St. Cletus, both in La Grange, are two that will receive donations.

For the St. Cletus Food Pantry, the timing of the drive is crucial.

“As we go into the summer, donations go down,” said Mary Beth Ford, pantry director. She said that bags were filled for the latest monthly distribution (held the second Thursday of each month). “After that, we are looking at a lot of empty shelves.”

Each month the pantry distributes a bag of groceries to at least 200 families of the working poor who live in the community.

The St. Francis Food Pantry distributes non-perishable groceries from 9:30-11 a.m. every Tuesday to approximately 50-70 families, according to the pantry’s website. The pantry serves clients who live in the 60525 and 60526 ZIP codes.

May 12 marks the 20th anniversary of the National Association of Letter Carriers’ (NALC) food drive.

“For two decades now, our annual national drive has proved critical in helping millions of American families—our customers—who are struggling to make ends meet during this continuing recession,” NALC President Fredric Rolando said in a prepared statement.

The drive, the largest one-day food-collection event in the nation, has been a success every year, Rolando said, but the needs are particularly sad, even staggering, in 2012.

“Sixteen percent of all Americans are at risk of hunger—uncertain where their next meal may be coming from. That includes 1 in 5 children under the age of 18, plus 4 million seniors who are forced every day to choose between paying a utility bill and buying food,” he said.