Food to be collected at mailboxes Saturday to ‘Stamp Out Hunger’
NEW PHILADELPHIA (WJER) (May 10, 2024) – Area post offices are again joining a larger effort to feed the less fortunate.
The National Association of Letter Carriers has its annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive on Saturday.
New Philadelphia post office letter carrier Stuart Darfus says all people have to do is leave non-perishable food items in or out by their mailbox Saturday, and the letter carriers – along with some extra helpers – will pick them up on their routes as they’re out delivering mail.
“It’s the largest one-day food drive in the country,” Darfus said. “All the food that we take in stays local, it goes through the Salvation Army and 100 percent of it stays in our community.”
Darfus says his post office has collected two to three tons of food in past drives.
“We’re absolutely grateful to our community for helping us carry this out. We wouldn’t be able to do it without them,” he said.
Darfus says it’s something postal carriers are dedicated to.
“We’ve seen food insecurity rise locally, especially in the last year or two with food prices going up,” he said.
He says some residents have donated large amounts in the past, but every little donation makes a difference.
“If everybody in the community left one can – one single can of food – we would annihilate records of previous years.”
Darfus says some specific items they are looking to collect on Saturday include unexpired baby food, cereal, kids’ snacks, pasta, pasta sauce, rice and cooking oil.
He says because of the rain, people can leave the food on their porch with a note in the mailbox telling the postal carriers it is there to pick up.
Or food can be dropped off directly at post offices. The Dover and New Philadelphia locations are open until 12:30 p.m. Saturday.