March 28, 2024

Creston letter carriers to help ‘stamp out hunger’

In snow or rain or heat or gloom of night, they collect and deliver envelopes, boxes and postcards to the residents of Creston. But this Saturday, local letter carriers will be gathering some additional cargo: bags of nonperishable food.

Saturday will be the 23rd annual National Association of Letter Carriers “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive. With 10,000 participating cities and towns throughout the United States and territories, it is the largest single-day food drive in the United States, with donations going to local food pantries across the country.

Terry Hardisty, who has been a letter carrier in Creston for 21 years, said local letter carriers have been participating in the drive for as long as he’s been around.

“I can’t remember when we weren’t,” he said.

Last year, Hardisty said carriers picked up an estimated 1,400 pounds of nonperishable food items to donate to MATURA’s Union County outreach food pantry. Nationwide, letter carriers collected nearly 73 million pounds.

According to Feeding America, one of the drive’s national partners, food insecurity affected more than 49 million Americans during 2013, nearly 16 million of them children. Feeding America lists Union County’s 2013 food insecurity rate at 13.4 percent.

Ron Ludwig, executive director at MATURA, said food drives like the letter carriers’ drive are always appreciated, as the need for assistance continues to steadily increase.

“It’s obviously very important for the meeting of the needs of people in the area,” Ludwig said. “When we receive those donations, it provides a large variety of food items for the individuals and families that we serve.”

How to help

Interested in taking part in the nation’s largest single-day food drive? Hardisty said it’s simple to participate.

“Yesterday we deliverd a card to each address stating what to do,” he said. “Basically you just put nonperishable food items at your mailbox and the carrier picks them up.”

Whether those bags are inside or beside the box, letter carriers will pick them up during normal mail delivery Saturday.

The food will then be delivered to the food pantry.