Stamp Out Hunger® Food & Funds Drive

The Stamp Out Hunger donor drive returns this spring on Saturday, May 13, 2023! For 30 years, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) has conducted an annual nationwide donor drive, collecting non-perishable food donations along postal routes. You can remind your family, friends, and neighbors to leave a bag of nonperishable food by their mailbox on the 2nd Saturday in May, and their letter carrier will handle the rest! All donated food will serve neighbors across the Central Rappahannock River Region.

HISTORY OF STAMP OUT HUNGER FOOD DRIVE DAY

National Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive Day is conducted by the National Association of Letter Carriers (N.A.L.C.). The drive was started in October 1991 as a trial program and took place across 10 cities in America. It was highly successful and has continued every year since. The initiative was formed by a union wanting to give back to those in need, whether it be by donating funds to a charity, collaborating during times of disaster, or protecting victims of calamities and crime.

The date for the drive was later moved to the second Saturday of May. The N.A.L.C. decided that the best time of year for the food drive would be in the late spring. This was because food banks and pantries ran out of food by May as donations decreased after Thanksgiving and Christmas.

It was the postmen who mostly saw the obstacles that communities faced. Thus, on this day, the postal carriers both deliver mail and collect food donations. As they deliver orders, bills, and postcards, people get to help out by filling their mailbags with non-perishable food donations.

One billion pounds of food have been dispatched over the last two decades. The mailmen deliverers representing the N.A.L.C. receive support from rural letter carriers, other messenger employees, and volunteers. In 2010, The Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive was awarded numerous badges, which include two Presidential Certificates of Achievement.