Local residents and letter carriers participated Saturday in the nation's largest annual single-day food drive, according to the U.S. Postal Service.
They aim to stamp out hunger for an estimated 35 million American postal workers say are at risk of hunger. The food drive entered its 15th year, with participating letter carriers in more than 10,000 commmunities in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands.
Michael Cavazos/News-Journal Photo |
Postal carrier David Hitt collects food on his route Saturday during the 15th annual food drive held by postal workers.
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"You will find that the ones who have the least to give are usually the ones who give the most," northwestern Longview postal worker David Hitt said. On Saturday afternoon, he loaded bags of non-perishable food items from local residents who left donations on top of a group of mail boxes in the Mill Run subdivision.
"It's a strange thing," Hitt said. "They tend to remember more because they've been there."
Residents were asked to place bags of dry foods and canned goods next to their mailboxes Saturday morning. Reminder cards were delivered to 120 million customers nationwide. East Texas get-the-word-out efforts included newspaper and radio advertisements, said Sheri Blackmon, a McCann Road carrier who coordinated local efforts.
Letter carriers loaded the goods onto their trucks during normal mail delivery.
Longview donations won't be shipped across the country, Blackmon said. Local donations are bound for the North Texas Food Bank's Dallas headquarters and redistributed to community assistance agencies. Those include several Gregg County churches, rescue missions, child advocacy centers, soup kitchens and treatment facilities.
Last spring, carriers gathered 836 million pounds of food nationwide, Blackmon said. That included 32 million pounds contributed to the North Texas Food Bank. Hitting that mark in 2008 is not guaranteed, nor are statistics on how much food Longview and East Texas has donated in past years, Blackmon said.
"It varies from year to year," Hitt said. "Today, I've been chased by cars twice of people who said, 'I had my donation sitting on the table and forgot to put by the mailbox.' It's just getting people to remember in their daily lives."
"It is just amazing to come back into the office and see all of this food that the letter carriers are bringing back," said Blackmon. She adds that many customers bring their donations to the U.S. Post Office docks. "To me, it actually does something to my spirit... It's a great blessing to be doing this."
