This weekend, Helping Harvest Fresh Food Bank partnered with local letter carriers and post offices to bring in almost 82,000 pounds of food in a single day that will be distributed to area families and individuals facing food insecurity. These efforts were part of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) “Stamp Out Hunger” Food Drive, held annually on the second Saturday in May.
Helping Harvest anticipates that even more donated food items from the NALC drive will trickle in over the course of this week.
On Saturday, participating postal customers left non-perishable food items in a bag near their mailbox, and their letter carrier collected and delivered the items either directly to Helping Harvest or to their post office, where items were then picked up and brought to the Helping Harvest warehouse.
As donations were delivered to Helping Harvest, dozens of volunteers began the monumental task of sorting them ahead of distributing the food to neighbors in need of food assistance. This process will continue over the coming days and weeks.
Every year since 1993, letter carriers from around the country collect non-perishable food items along their routes and deliver food to local food banks. In Berks County, Helping Harvest Fresh Food Bank receives the donated food and distributes it to neighbors facing food insecurity in its service territory of Berks & Schuylkill counties.
