Post Office ready to 'Stamp Out Hunger'
By BARRY HALVORSON bhalvorson@journal-spectator.com

Staff photo by Barry Halvorson Looking for your support to help feed those in need, Wharton postal carriers Melissa Munoz and Beverly Smith help promote this Saturday's Letter Carriers Food Drive.

Wharton mail carriers will be doing more than looking to drop off those letters, bills and circulars this Saturday as they participate in this year's "Stamp Out Hunger" food drive.

The food collection drive is a project sponsored by the National Association of Letter Carriers in cooperation with the U.S. Postal Service and the United Way.

The letter carriers are asking everyone to leave a donation bag of non-perishable items like canned goods, cereal and other packaged items by their mail box on Saturday, May 10. Post card reminders of when to make a donation and what donations are accepted will be distributed in local mailboxes this week in preparation for Saturday's collection.

This is the 16th year the NALC's been sponsoring the food drive. Local Postmaster Wilma Destin said the Wharton office has participated eight of the last nine years. She said the local contributions collected will be donated to the SHARE program in Wharton County.

"Because the Post Office serves the entire community, we selected SHARE to be the logical organization to distribute the food because it serves everyone," Destin said.

"And if you forget to put out a donation on Saturday but want to contribute, you can drop off a donation at the Post Office and we'll make sure it gets to SHARE."

In a news release on its Web site, it says the NALC settled on the second Saturday of May for the annual drive since food bank donations tend to wane after the winter holidays.

This drop-off is particularly troublesome since the hunger problem is usually at its most critical during the summer when school breakfast and lunch programs - often the only source of stable nutrition for millions of children - are suspended, the release reports.

"The food drive is the hallmark of the union's tradition of community service," said NALC President William H. Young in the release.

"A very rich tradition that includes numerous heroic acts by carriers as they deliver mail along their routes, the year-long campaign to collect funds for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and watching out for the elderly through the Carrier Alert program."

In 2007, the drive delivered 70.7 million pounds of non-perishable items donated by patrons to local food organizations, the fourth consecutive year the total surpassed 70 million pounds. Last year's figure brought the overall total for the nationwide drive's history to 836.2 million pounds, according to the release.

Additional information is available at www.helpstampouthunger.com.