Help Stamp Out Hunger

35 million Americans don't have enough food to eat. Today, May 9th, you can Help Stamp Out Hunger by donating food to the 17th annual nationwide food drive. Simply fill bags with non-perishable food items and leave them next to your mailbox, and your letter carrier will carry them off.

From the official Help Stamp Out Hunger press release:

Nation's Largest One-Day Food Drive Helps The Increasing Number of Americans Struggling with Hunger

CAMDEN, NJ (April 13, 2009) — On Saturday, May 9, Campbell Soup Company will join forces with the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) to Stamp Out Hunger!(TM) across America in order to provide assistance to the one in eight Americans who struggle with hunger.

The Stamp Out Hunger! effort is the nation's largest single-day food drive, having collected more than 909 million pounds of food since its inception in 1993. Last year, letter carriers across the country collected a record total of more than 73.1 million pounds of food, but with hunger impacting many Americans – including working families, children and the elderly – help is needed now more than ever before.

To help Stamp Out Hunger! this year, simply leave a sturdy bag containing non-perishable foods, like canned soup, canned vegetables, pasta, rice or cereal, next to your mailbox prior to the time of regular mail delivery on May 9. Food items should be in non-breakable containers, such as boxes and cans. The nation's 230,000 letter carriers will be collecting donations from homes across the country and delivering them to food bank members of Feeding America (formerly America’s Second Harvest – The Nation’s Food Bank Network) and other hunger relief organizations in more than 10,000 local communities.

"In these difficult economic times, hunger is an issue that must be addressed in every community across our country," said William H. Young, NALC president. "We see it daily out on our routes. That's why now more than ever before we need everybody’s help to make a real difference."

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 36 million Americans live in food insecure households, and approximately one in every three of these Americans is a child. Additionally, a recent survey of Feeding America food bank members reported a 30 percent increase in requests for emergency food assistance. The reasons cited for this dramatic increase in demand included rising cost of food, increasing unemployment and underemployment, the cost of fuel and the burden of mortgage or rent costs.

Food banks are also notoriously empty during summer months, having exhausted the supply of donations received from food drives conducted during the holidays that are then distributed during spring. Summer donations are even more critical since many children in need no longer have the benefit of their school lunch program.

Read the entire press release.

For more information about the food drive, visit http://www.helpstampouthunger.com and http://www.stampouthunger.info/

Click here to locate your nearby post office and make sure it is participating in the food drive.