Close to 4,000 letter carriers joined letter carriers nationwide to collect food from postal customers during the National Association of Letter Carriers Food Drive on May 11, collecting 1,164,211 pounds of nonperishable food in Oregon and Clark County, Wash., for the Oregon Food Bank.
Oregon Food Bank thanks the letter carriers who did the heavy lifting and not only delivered mail but also picked up food donations from postal customers, said Susannah Morgan, chief executive officer of the Oregon Food Bank, which benefits from the food drive. And we thank the hundreds of thousands of postal customers who filled those bags with nutritious food for their letter carriers to pick up, the community volunteers who stepped forward to help, and the trucking companies that donated trucks and their drivers time to transport the food.
Since 1982, the Oregon Food Bank has been leading the fight against hunger in Oregon and southwest Washington by collecting and distributing food through a network of four branches and 16 independent regional food banks.
The food bank network helps nearly one in five households fend off hunger, said Jean Kempe-Ware, food bank spokeswoman. It also leads statewide efforts to increase resources for hungry families and to eliminate the root causes of hunger through advocacy, nutrition education and garden education. For more information, visit www.oregonfoodbank.org.