(Letter to the Editor - Graphic Illustration/MetroCreativeConnection)

Saturday, May 13 marks the 31st anniversary of one of America’s great days of giving — The National Association of Letter Carriers Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive.

Letter carriers walk through the community every day, often coming face to face with a sad reality for too many, hunger. So each year on the second Saturday in May, letter carriers across the country collect non-perishable food donations from our customers to go to local food pantries.

Over the course of its 30-year history, the drive has collected well over 1.82 billion pounds of food, thanks to a postal service universal delivery network that spans the entire nation. The need for food is great. Currently, more than 42 million Americans are unsure where their next meal is coming from. More than 12 million of this statistic are children who feel hunger’s impact on their overall health and ability to perform in school. And, nearly 5.2 million seniors over the age of 60 are food insecure, with many who live on fixed incomes and too embarrassed to ask for help.

Our food drive’s timing is crucial. Foodbanks and pantries often receive the majority of their donations during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday seasons. By springtime, many pantries are depleted and entering the summer low on supplies at a time when many school breakfast and lunch programs are not available to children in need.

Here, the donations collected by Branch 481 go directly to local food pantries in Parkersburg, Vienna, Williamstown, St. Marys, Paden City, Sistersville, New Martinsville and Ravenswood to provide to people who need our help. The Parkersburg food drop location is at Camden Avenue Church of Christ, where Bill Kirby and his team of volunteers will weigh, sort and disperse the food to pantries with the Wood County Food Co-Op. The Vienna food drop location is at Wayside United Methodist Church, where another great team of volunteers weighs, sorts and gives the collected food to the Good Samaritan Food Distribution Center. Food collected in the outlying cities gets donated to their local food pantries as well. This really is a day where several people from our communities come together to help make our Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive a success. We appreciate every one of these hard working volunteers!

Participating in this year’s Letter Carrier Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is simple. Just leave a non-perishable food donation in a bag by your mailbox Saturday, May 13 and your letter carrier will do the rest. With your help, letter carriers and the U.S. Postal Service can continue our fight to end hunger. Please help us as we celebrate our 31st anniversary year in America’s great day of giving.

Shelly Elschlager, letter carrier

Parkersburg

National Association of Letter Carriers, Branch 481