Letter carriers across our region picked up some extra packages on Saturday to help fight hunger.
This is the 27th year that the U.S. Post Office Letter Carriers have held their “Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive.” Locally they teamed up with the United Way of Greater Lima and The West Ohio Food Bank to collect food from the people along their postal routes. Volunteers from Ford and JSMC also pitched in to unload the items that were brought back. Stamp out hunger is the single biggest food drive in the country and letter carriers look forward to helping others in our region.
“I know there is a lot of involvement with the United Way they are excited about it. They help out the community quite a bit,” says Jeff Steegman, Organizer, Lima’s Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. “The carriers seem to be excited, this is their only chance we get to bring our family along with us, so they can see what we do when we are out here on the route. Also, it’s a good cause to give the food bank to the West Ohio Food Bank.”
“We had 15-ton last year, our goal is to beat that this year and it looks like we have a good start,” adds Greg Bayes, Postmaster, Lima Post Office. “We did a lot more advertising and people are just great how they help out with a situation like this.”
“I think when you see the amount of hunger in this country, even though we are an affluent country, to see the amount of people that are hungry, I think this is a great way the letter carriers and the postal service can give back to the community that has done so much to support us over the years,” says Fred Brinkman, Pres. Branch 105 National Association of Letter Carriers.
The Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive will collect over one billion pounds of food nationwide on Saturday.
