Community Corner

Letter Carriers Do Their Part to Stamp Out Hunger

Food collected in Saturday's drive will help local food pantries at a time when donations dip.

Food given to mail carriers Saturday for the annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive will benefit local food pantries. This national effort, spearheaded by U.S. Postal Service letter carriers, supports area food pantries, and gives them a boost after traditional holiday donations are depleted, and summer donations decline.

Batavia Interfaith Food Pantry, which serves residents of Batavia and Batavia Township, and the food pantry at Salvation Army Tri-City Corps in St. Charles are two of those recipients. The Interfaith Food Pantry serves residents of Batavia and Batavia Township. The Tri-City Salvation Army serves St. Charles, Geneva, Batavia, Campton Hills and Wayne.

“Our donations go down quite a bit at this time of year,” said Connie Barrera, the Salvation Army social service ministry director. “We get a couple of donations from churches that donate on a monthly basis."

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She said the largest donations since Christmas came from an Eastertime three-week effort, compliments of Blue Goose Market, 300 S. Second St., St. Charles. “Blue Goose sold bags of food for $5, $10, $15 and donated the food to us,” she said.

Donna Lake spokesperson for the Northern Illinois Food Bank based in Geneva calls Stamp Out Hunger a fantastic food drive. Donations go to many of the food pantries in the area that are part of the Food Bank’s cooperative.

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May 12 marks the 20th anniversary of the National Association of Letter Carriers’ (NALC) food drive.

“For two decades now, our annual national drive has proved critical in helping millions of American families—our customers—who are struggling to make ends meet during this continuing recession,” NALC President Fredric Rolando said in a prepared statement.

The drive, the largest one-day food-collection event in the nation, has been a success every year, Rolando said, but the needs are particularly sad, even staggering, in 2012.

“Sixteen percent of all Americans are at risk of hunger—uncertain where their next meal may be coming from. That includes 1 in 5 children under the age of 18, plus 4 million seniors who are forced every day to choose between paying a utility bill and buying food,” he said.


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