Saturday, May 13: Place bag of non-perishable food items by your mailbox for Letter Carriers food drive

Volunteers will be needed at local post offices to help collect food, unload trucks

Adapted from the Minneapolis Labor Review, April 29, 2023

By Steve Share, Minneapolis Labor Review editor

MINNEAPOLIS —Mark your calendar for Saturday, May 13: That’s the date for this year’s “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive organized by the National Association of Letter Carriers.

If you can, fill a grocery bag with non-perishable food items and place it by your mailbox early that morning.

Your letter carrier or a community volunteer will pick it up and the food will be donated to a local foodshelf.

“The food pantries right now really need the support of our food drive,” said Latasha Mccaleb, who is food drive coordinator for NALC Branch 9 in Minneapolis. Mccaleb, Richfield, also is a full-time letter carrier and seven-year member of Branch 9.

“The increased [grocery] prices are putting a weight on a lot of families,” Mccaleb said.

In addition, beginning in March, Minnesota households who received extra help with grocery costs during the COVID-19 pandemic from the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program saw their monthly benefits reduced to pre-pandemic levels.

“Food insecurity has ballooned nationwide in response to social inequity, COVID, inflation, and the discontinuation of COVID-related government support,” notes a new annual report by one local emergency food program, Joyce Uptown Foodshelf.

The Minneapolis-area Letter Carriers food drive is coming back this year after a three-year interruption resulting from the pandemic.

The food drive this year will be much more decentralized, with local post offices collecting donated food and delivering it directly to local foodshelves.

“Volunteers are at the top of what we need,” Branch 9 food drive coordinator Latasaha Mccaleb said, adding that each local post office will host a barbecue May 13 for volunteers. Volunteers will be needed to unload carrier trucks at local stations, help collect food along carrier routes, or help bring the food to local foodshelves

To volunteer, contact the NALC Branch 9 office at 612-781-9858 or contact Latasha Mccaleb directly at latasham@branch9nalc.com.

See also:
> Letter Carriers food drive returns Saturday, May 13
(Minneapolis Labor Review, 3-25-23)