Postal Carriers Mobilize To ‘Stamp Out Hunger’

While most residents only leave letters in their mailboxes, once a year, they are asked to leave food for the hungry.

Last year, through Stamp Out Hunger, letter carriers picked up and distributed 391,000 pounds of non-perishable food in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.

That's enough for 300,000 meals, said Caitlin Kerk with the Second Harvest Food Bank of the largest single-day food drive Bay Area and nationwide.

When kids are out of school, parents lose one source of meals, free-or-reduced lunches and even breakfasts.

"Heading into the summer months, there's a real big need for food," said Kerk.

To participate, residents are asked to place a bag of non-perishable food items like tuna, meats, peanut butter, stews, soup, vegetables, pasta, rice or cereal by their mailbox before mail is delivered on Saturday, May 14.

Letter carriers in Milpitas will collect the donations and deliver them to the Second Harvest Food Bank, a regular supplier of food to Milpitas Food Pantry.

Nationally, letter carriers across the country last year collected a record-breaking 77.1 million pounds of food. Since its inception in 1992, the Stamp Out Hunger letter carriers food drive has stocked more than 1 billion pounds of non-perishable items on food bank shelves across the country. One billion pounds of food is enough to feed each California resident three meals a day for a week.