Celebrating its 23rd anniversary this year, the Stamp Out Hunger food drive is the nation’s largest single-day food drive
Local residents have the opportunity to help the county’s hungry this weekend.
On Saturday, the National Association of Letter Carriers will collect food donations in order to provide assistance to the millions of Americans who are struggling with hunger. Locally all donations will be taken to the FISH Food Pantry.
FISH representative Tami Mussche said the annual drive is important to the local food pantry.
“The food drive by the postal carriers is always a success and it means a lot to FISH,” Mussche said. “Normally, the items donated will keep us stocked to July, meaning we do not have to spend any of our own funds to buy items. All the items collected in Montgomery County will stay in the county.”
Celebrating its 23rd anniversary this year, the Stamp Out Hunger food drive is the nation’s largest single-day food drive, having collected more than one billion pounds of food since its inception as a national food drive in 1993. The nation’s 180,000 letter carriers will collect food donations left at the mailboxes of generous Americans in more than 10,000 communities and deliver them to food banks and other hunger-relief organizations.
In 2014, generous individuals donated more than 72 million pounds of food, which marked the 11th consecutive year that at least 70 million pounds were collected. In Montgomery County, 9,352 pounds were collected and donated to FISH Food Pantry.
Letter carriers ask donations be left beside customer mailboxes to be picked up Saturday. Donations also will be accepted at the lobby of the Crawfordsville Post Office. Each Montgomery County town post office has been asked to set out a collection box as well.
The following is a list of non-perishable food items requested by food banks: cereal, pasta, rice, canned fruits and vegetables, canned meals such as soups, chili, pasta, 100 percent juice, peanut butter, pasta sauce or spaghetti sauce, macaroni and cheese, canned protein — tuna, chicken, turkey and beans — canned or dry.
For more information about the annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive, visit www.facebook.com/StampOutHunger and follow the food drive at www.twitter.com/StampOutHunger.
