Stamping Out Hunger

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – As mail carriers traverse their routes, they often catch glimpses of the broader scope of conditions their customers are experiencing.   

National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 63 Vice President George Walsh talked about the 34th annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive that the mail service provides to help stock local food pantries.

“It’s a food drive that anyone can participate in and we make it as simple as possible,” Walsh said. “It’s every… the second Saturday of May. This year, it will be Saturday, May 9th. In order to participate, all they have to do is take the blue bags that were provided to them in their mailbox, simply fill it with their nonperishable food items and leave it by their mailbox and their letter carrier will take care of the rest.”

Walsh says May is the perfect time for restocking the pantries because their wintertime donations have been consumed and many children are about to lose their school lunch programs in the coming weeks as the school year ends.

“This is a difficult time for a lot of families, homes. This is a difficult time right now with rising prices. But especially this time of year, we’ve got a lot of kids who are out of school. So they don’t have that easy access to breakfast and lunch that they normally have. So there’s a lot of people struggling with that food insecurity. And this is a time of year that we can help out the food pantries during a tough time of year,” Walsh said.

Donations don’t need to be limited to only the bag that’s provided. Participants can mark their own additional bags to leave out as well. Last year, 63,000 pounds of food was collected in and around Muskingum County and this year, each item collected will stay within the community it was gathered.