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Letter Carriers Collect 70.5 Million Pounds in Nation's Largest Anti-Hunger Food Drive
Washington, DC
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Letter carriers collected 70.5 million pounds of food donations along their mail routes in the nation's largest one-day effort to combat hunger, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) announced today.
Final results showed 70,493,150 pounds of food were collected along postal routes in the postal union's "Stamp Out Hunger" food drive conducted annually on the second Saturday in May in all 50 states and U.S. jurisdictions. The food was delivered to local food banks, pantries and shelters to help needy families.
Buffalo/Western New York NALC Branch 3, which collected 1,902,962 pounds of donations, was the top NALC local branch in the drive for the fourth consecutive year.
NALC President William H. Young thanked the millions of American families who left food by their mailboxes and the thousands of letter carriers, rural carriers, and other postal employees and volunteers who collected, processed, and delivered the donations to local food banks and pantries.
"Once again the American people have come through with an amazing display of generosity," Young said. "Hunger is a critical day-to-day issue for far too many families in our nation – including working Americans, children and the elderly – and letter carriers are proud to deliver donations from our postal customers to restock their community food banks and pantries"
The announcement was made in conjunction with today's National Hunger Awareness Day activities aimed at encouraging citizen involvement in anti-hunger efforts.
Young expressed appreciation to the U.S. Postal Service and Campbell Soup Company, who together supplied nearly 118 million postcards to promote the drive, as well as other major supporters: Valpak, the direct mail marketing firm; America's Second Harvest, the nation's largest network of food banks; United Way of America and its local United Ways; the AFL-CIO, and cartoonist Bil Keane, who yearly provides a special "Family Circus" drawing for the drive.
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Final results showed 70,493,150 pounds of food were collected along postal routes in the postal union's "Stamp Out Hunger" food drive conducted annually on the second Saturday in May in all 50 states and U.S. jurisdictions. The food was delivered to local food banks, pantries and shelters to help needy families.
Buffalo/Western New York NALC Branch 3, which collected 1,902,962 pounds of donations, was the top NALC local branch in the drive for the fourth consecutive year.
NALC President William H. Young thanked the millions of American families who left food by their mailboxes and the thousands of letter carriers, rural carriers, and other postal employees and volunteers who collected, processed, and delivered the donations to local food banks and pantries.
"Once again the American people have come through with an amazing display of generosity," Young said. "Hunger is a critical day-to-day issue for far too many families in our nation – including working Americans, children and the elderly – and letter carriers are proud to deliver donations from our postal customers to restock their community food banks and pantries"
The announcement was made in conjunction with today's National Hunger Awareness Day activities aimed at encouraging citizen involvement in anti-hunger efforts.
Young expressed appreciation to the U.S. Postal Service and Campbell Soup Company, who together supplied nearly 118 million postcards to promote the drive, as well as other major supporters: Valpak, the direct mail marketing firm; America's Second Harvest, the nation's largest network of food banks; United Way of America and its local United Ways; the AFL-CIO, and cartoonist Bil Keane, who yearly provides a special "Family Circus" drawing for the drive.
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Drew Von Bergen
Director of Public Relations
National Association of Letter Carriers(AFL-CIO)
Washington, DC
202-662-2489
202-737-1540
