Stamp Out Hunger

       I would first like to “thank” all the letter carriers that participated in Stamp Out Hunger 2024 campaign. As you are aware we do this food drive every year this was our 32nd annual food drive. The first food drive was in 1992, the National Association of Letter Carriers’ annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive has grown into the nation’s largest one-day food drive, helping to fill the shelves of food banks in local communities throughout the United States. Letter carriers work extra hard that day and the week preceding the food drive. All letter carriers are supposed to deliver food drive cards to their customers and some of the letter carriers in different offices also delivered food drive bags along with the food drive cards. Then picking up the non-perishable food items on Saturday May 11th. This makes it for a long week for the letter carrier.

    It is a little disturbing to me to find out that some letter carriers in some offices refused to take out the food drive cards. The NALC and this Branch does not ask you for much during the year. And to find out that some of the carriers would not take out the food drive cards is an insult to this Branch. I would hope that the carriers that refused to take out the food drive cards never need food for themselves or their family! This is disgusting not helping your fellow neighbors, in the local communities that you serve. All the food that is collected stays here on Long Island and Far Rockaway. Why would you not want to participate in such a worthy cause is beyond me. I hope next year you do the right thing!

     Our partner here on Long Island is Island Harvest. They have been our partners in this endeavor for as far back as I can remember. We have a good relationship with them, and we work hand in hand to accomplish the goal of feeding the needy here on Long Island.

    Thanks to all efforts Island Harvest first reported on May 22nd, a total of 382,175 pounds of food was collected. Then on May 29th, I received another email from Island Harvest that they received another trailer load of food that was in a processing plant, which weighed 1,400 pounds to bring the total to 383,575 pounds of food. Then on June 27th, I received another email from Island Harvest stating that they received another trailer that was sitting in a processing plant with 2,330 pounds of food. So, the total as of the writing of this articles is 384,505 pounds of food that will support 320,421 meals for families in need. We collected about 64,000 pounds more this year than last year! I would like to “thank” all that participated to achieve this amount of 384,505 pounds of non- perishable food items. And for those that refused to do it I would hope that you would reconsider for 2025!