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‘Stamp Out Hunger’ Is May 14

By Staff | May 10, 2011

Hang your food drive donation bag on your mail box or place it inside with the flag up if possible

Feeding America, USPS, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), the National Rural Letter Carriers Association (NRLCA), Campbell Soup Company, and Publix Supermarkets will be joined by entertainer and entrepreneur Nick Canon in the annual food drive to “Stamp Out Hunger” Saturday, May 14.

Now in its 19th year, the “Stamp Out Hunger” campaign has become the nation’s largest single-day food drive. In 2010, letter carriers collected a record-setting total of more than 77 million pounds of food donations along their postal routes, pushing the 18-year total to more than 1 billion pounds of food.

As a hunger relief advocate and the newest member of Feeding America’s Entertainment Council, Cannon is supporting the food drive by urging Americans to participate.

Campbell Soup Company is providing postal cards reminding customers of the food drive; these will be placed in mailboxes on Saturday, May 7. Publix Supermarkets will provide brown reusable grocery bags to be placed in mailboxes on Wednesday, May 11.

Most food collected in Lee County will go to the Harry Chapin Food Bank; in Collier County, food will go to Collier Harvest. All food collected through the food drive will be distributed to participating nonprofit agencies at no cost.

Individuals who are not able to leave their food items by the mailbox on May 14 are encouraged to drop off their contributions at any Post Office; the items will be saved and added to the May 14 contributions. Virtually any kind of food may be donated in unopened, nonbreakable containers. Items especially in need are peanut butter, tuna, rice, beans, and canned meats, fruits, vegetables, and soups.

For more information about purchasing stamps, stamps by mail, postal regulations, a free subscription to USA Philatelic magazine, Post Office events, the location of the nearest postal store or contract unit, or for answers to your specific Postal Service questions, contact USPS at 1-800-275-8777, or visit www.usps.com. To schedule a presentation or your community, club or group on how the Postal Service brings the Post Office to your home or office computer, call 239-573-9638.

Mr. Zip’s Tip: USPS operates more than 44,000 alternative fuel-capable mail delivery vehicles.

A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $67 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 29th in the 2010 Fortune 500. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Ppstal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency six consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.