By Alec Johnson
The second Saturday in May is an important one for the National Association of Letter Carriers, and this year is no different.
On May 9, letter carriers will stop in communities around the nation, including the Indianapolis area, to collect food for the 23rd annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. Residents will receive cards and possibly bags announcing the drive on Tuesday or Wednesday. Then, on pickup day, they can choose to leave food out by their mailbox well before their normal pickup time. Carmel and Westfield’s food donations will go to Open Doors in Westfield.
NALC Branch 888 President Ronnie Roush says the food drive is one of the NALC’s biggest charity efforts. Their goal this year is 100,000 lbs. for the branch’s area, which covers Carmel, Noblesville, Fishers, Westfield, Zionsville, Danville, Sheridan, Lebanon and Fortville.
“We try to do something every year, 3 or 4 times a year, for MDA, food drive…We try to make a lot of contributions to the community because the community has opened to us, we want to give back as much as we can,” Roush said.
Last year, almost 73 million pounds of food were collected nationwide, totaling over 1.3 billion pounds nationwide since the national drive began in 1992. Branch 888 collected almost 95,000 lbs. last year.
To put in perspective how large the food drive is, Roush said there are around 180,000 city carriers, and around 100,000 rural carriers around the nation. According to Roush, there’s close to 280,000 carriers in every community in every neighborhood in every state picking up food.
“That’s why it’s the nation’s largest one-day food drive,” Roush said. “And the beauty of the food drive is every pound of food we pick up in Carmel and Westfield goes to Open Doors in Westfield. Not a single pound goes anywhere out of the local community.”
Open Doors President Kurt Wanninger is proud of the partnership the NALC and Open Doors have in putting on the event.
“It’s a great partnership with the postal service and the Open Doors organization is very grateful to our postal carriers and the service they provide,” Wanninger said.
