Published: May 19, 2008 05:36 pm            

P.O. food drives garner nearly 10,000 pounds

By Cristin Ross

cross@jacksonvilleprogress.com

Cherokee County’s post offices delivered more than just bills and junk mail last weekend.

Saturday, May 10 was the National Letter Carriers Association’s annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, and mail carriers with Jacksonville, Bullard and Rusk post offices collected an estimated 9,565 pounds of food for local food pantries.

Jacksonville postal workers brought just under 6,000 pounds of food from its mail routes on Saturday.

“That’s about the same as what we collected last year, if I remember correctly,” said Dwight Tickens, Jacksonville Post Office’s drive coordinator. “We want to thank the community for participating again this year, and all the carriers and clerks who made it happen.”

Jacksonville Post Office’s collection benefits the HOPE (Helping Others Pursue Enrichment) Center’s Manna Pantry in Jacksonville.

“We got very good quality food and lots of things we really needed,” HOPE Volunteer Coordinator Betty Ewalt said. “This is a big boost for us — we were getting pretty low.”

Ewalt said at least 20 volunteers showed up on May 10 to help sort, stock and store all the items donated to the pantry. Another 1,000 pounds of food was delivered on May 12 by individuals, as well.

“We’re really very happy to have so many good hearts here,” Ewalt said. “We’re seeing more and more people needing help every day.”

In Bullard, letter carriers gathered right at 2,000 pounds, according to Post Master Jerry Ward — slightly down from last year’s collection total.

“The Bullard community is always very generous to this worthy cause,” Ward said. “We appreciate their participation.”

Bullard Post Office’s collection benefits the Mission House’s food pantry in Bullard.

And in Rusk, mail carriers collected 1,565 pounds of goods this year.

“That’s about 100 pounds less than last year, but that’s not too bad considering the times,” Rusk Post Master Ron Williams said.

Rusk Post Office’s food benefits the Good Samaritan in Rusk.

“What we got is wonderful,” Good Samaritan chair Kay Epperson said. “Usually we see four or five new families in a month — last month we served 21 new families, and the majority of them are 55 years old and older.”

Epperson said the Good Samaritan also provides basic personal hygiene and other products for its clients and is need of cooking oil, bar soap, toothpaste and deodorants.

According to the National Letter Carrier Association’s Web site, this year is the 16th year for the drive, which has become the largest one-day food collection in the nation.

“The food drive is the hallmark of the union’s tradition of community service,” said NALC President William H. Young in a release published on the NLCA’s site, “a very rich tradition that includes numerous heroic acts by carriers as they deliver mail along their routes, the year-long campaign to collect funds for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and watching out for the elderly through the Carrier Alert program.”

Every year with the drive, letter carriers focus their efforts on restocking the community food banks, pantries and shelters that millions of American families will rely on throughout the summer.

The union decided to hold the drive on the second Saturday of May every year because food bank donations typically dry up after the holidays.

That decrease is particularly troublesome, states the site, “since the hunger problem is usually at its most critical during the summer when school breakfast and lunch programs — often the only source of stable nutrition for millions of children — are suspended.”

The drive delivered 70.7 million pounds of non-perishable items in 2007 — the fourth consecutive year the total surpassed 70 million pounds. Last year’s figure brought the overall total for the nationwide drive’s history to 836.2 million pounds.

Post office officials said the challenge this year is especially daunting as signs of a deepening recession become more prominent and fuel and utility costs soar.

“This economic squeeze comes while 35 million Americans are experiencing what the federal government refers to as “very low food security,” a euphemistic way of saying people are either already going hungry or are worried about where their next meal will come from,” the site states.

The drive has two national corporate supporters, Campbell Soup Company and Valpak/Cox Target Media, plus many local and regional backers, including food store chains such as Publix and Kroger, banks, newspapers, radio and television stations, and health care organizations, including Blue Cross and Blue Shield and Caremark.

        

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