The Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is a charitable initiative conducted by the United States Postal Service, National Rural Letter Carriers' Association & National Association of Letter Carriers in the United States to make significant donations of food to organizations serving needy persons.
For many years, a number of branches (locals) of the NALC had collected food for the needy as part of their community service effort.
The national, coordinated effort by the NALC to help fight hunger in America grew out of discussions in 1991 by a number of leaders at the time, including NALC President Vincent R. Sombrotto, AFL-CIO Community Services Director Joseph Velasquez, USPS Postmaster General Anthony M. Frank, and NALC Director of Public Relations Drew Von Bergen. [1] A pilot drive was held in 10 cities in October 1991, and it proved so successful that work began immediately on making it a nationwide effort. [2]
After receiving input from food banks and pantries, the NALC decided that the best time of year for this food drive to take place would be in the late spring. Most food banks start running out of food this time of year because the largest donations are made around Thanksgiving and Christmas. [3]
A revamped food drive was organized for May 15, 1993. The goal for the organization was to have at least one branch of the National Association of Letter Carriers participate from all 50 states. The first year of the nationwide effort collected over 11 million pounds of food, which was a one-day record in the United States, with more than 220 union branches covering more than 1,000 communities participating. [4]
Thereafter, the national drive was set for the second Saturday of May each year.
In 2010, 77.1 million pounds [5] of food were collected, which helped the food drive surpass the 1 billion pound mark in total food collected over its history. [6]
In 2016, the food drive collected a record 80 million pounds of nonperishable food, [7] raising the total amount of donations picked up over the quarter-century history of the drive to more than 1.5 billion pounds.
In 2017, the food drive celebrated its 25th anniversary. The official magazine of the National Association of Letter Carriers, The Postal Record, ran a history of the drive's first 25 years, featuring an interview with Drew Von Bergen, a former NALC employee who coordinated the drives for many years. [2]
In 2010, the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association became a full partner in the annual drive (though the NRLCA had participated in the drive from its inception), [8] The food drive was not held in 2020 or 2021 due to COVID-19. [9]
The Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is held in all 50 states every year on the second Saturday of May: on this day, mail carriers both deliver mail and collect food donations. It is held in May because most food banks face a depletion in donations from the holiday season. Today, the Stamp Out Hunger effort is the United States' largest single-day food drive. [10]
In 2016, the food drive collected a record 80 million pounds of nonperishable food, [7] raising the total amount of donations picked up over the quarter-century history of the drive to more than 1.5 billion pounds.
The NALC food drive has also received two Presidential Certificates of Achievement. [11]
The Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive has many supporters including The U.S. Postal Service, Campbell Soup Company, Cox Target Media, Valpak, the National Rural Letter Carriers Association, the Feeding America food bank network, the United Way of America and its local United Ways, the AFL-CIO Community Services network, Uncle Bob's Self Storage, and AARP. [12]
Signing on as national food drive partners in 2017 were the U.S. Postal Service, the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), United Way Worldwide, AFL-CIO, AARP Foundation, Valpak] and Valassis.
The Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive will take donations of nonperishable foods in non-breakable containers such as cereals, dry milk, cereal bars, baby formula, canned fruit, canned vegetables, canned meats and fish, boxed or canned juices, canned soups, peanut butter, boxed instant food, pasta/boxed pasta, boxed rice, and dried beans. [13]
As of December 2015, the phrase "Stamp Out Hunger" is a registered trademark of the National Association of Letter Carriers. [14] As of January 2017, the official logo of the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is a registered trademark of National Association of Letter Carriers. [15]
Actor Edward James Olmos is the official national spokesperson for the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. [16]
The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U.S., including its insular areas and associated states. It is one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the Constitution of the United States. The USPS, as of 2021, has 516,636 career employees and 136,531 non-career employees.
A postal worker is one who works for a post office, such as a mail carrier. In the U.S., postal workers are represented by the National Association of Letter Carriers, AFL–CIO, National Postal Mail Handlers Union – NPMHU, the National Association of Rural Letter Carriers and the American Postal Workers Union, part of the AFL–CIO. In Canada, they are represented by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and in the United Kingdom by the Communication Workers Union.
A mail carrier, mailman, mailwoman, postal carrier, postman, postwoman, or letter carrier, sometimes colloquially known as a postie, is an employee of a post office or postal service, who delivers mail and parcel post to residences and businesses. The term "mail carrier" came to be used as a gender-neutral substitute for "mailman" soon after women began performing the job. In the Royal Mail, the official name changed from "letter carrier" to "postman" in 1883, and "postwoman" has also been used for many years.
The National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) is an American labor union, representing non-rural letter carriers employed by the United States Postal Service. It was founded in 1889. The NALC has 2,500 local branches representing letter carriers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam.
Nalcrest is a retirement community in Polk County, Florida, United States. The community's ZIP code is 33856. It is part of the Lakeland–Winter Haven Metropolitan Statistical Area.
A food bank is a non-profit, charitable organization that distributes food to those who have difficulty purchasing enough to avoid hunger, usually through intermediaries like food pantries and soup kitchens. Some food banks distribute food directly with their food pantries.
The American Postal Workers Union (APWU) is a labor union in the United States. It represents over 200,000 employees and retirees of the United States Postal Service who belong to the Clerk, Maintenance, Motor Vehicle, and Support Services divisions. It also represents approximately 2,000 private-sector mail workers.
The U.S. postal strike of 1970 was an eight-day strike by federal postal workers in March 1970. The strike began in New York City and spread to some other cities in the following two weeks. This strike against the federal government, regarded as illegal, was the largest wildcat strike in U.S. history.
Food Bank For New York City is a non-profit social services organization and the major hunger-relief organization working against hunger in the five boroughs. Its aim is to organize food, information and support for needy citizens of New York City.
The National Rural Letter Carriers' Association (NRLCA) is an American labor union that represents the rural letter carriers of the United States Postal Service. According to its statutes, the purpose of the Association is to "improve the methods used by rural letter carriers, to benefit their conditions of labor with the United States Postal Service (USPS), and to promote a fraternal spirit among its members."
The Greater Chicago Food Depository (GCFD) is a nonprofit organization that fights hunger throughout Cook County, Illinois. The GCFD distributes donated and purchased food through a network of 700 food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and community programs, serving more than 800,000 adults and children every year. In fiscal year 2016, the GCFD distributed more than 70 million pounds of nonperishable food, produce, dairy products, and meat - the equivalent of more than 160,000 meals every day. Of the $96,883,955 spent in 2016, over 90% went to direct food distribution programs.
Hunger Task Force, Inc. is a non-profit, anti-hunger public policy organization in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Hunger Task Force works to end hunger in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin by providing direct food delivery services, and works to end future hunger by advocating for fair and responsible administration of federal nutrition assistance programs.
Canstruction is a United States 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization providing canned food to local food banks in cities holding Canstruction competitions. Canstruction is an international charity competition where architects, engineers, contractors and students they mentor, compete to design and build giant structures made entirely from full cans of food. At the close of the competition all of the food is donated to local food banks where the competitions are held. Canstruction was founded in 1992 by Cheri Melillo and has since raised millions of pounds of food for food banks in participating cities across the world. With more than 170 cities and over 30,000 volunteers participating in Canstruction competitions, Canstruction has grown to become one of the largest food drives for food bank donations in the world.
William H. Young is an American labor union leader. He was president of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) from 2002 to 2009 and also a vice-president of the AFL–CIO.
Philabundance is a non-profit food bank that serves the Philadelphia and Delaware Valley region of Pennsylvania, United States. It is the largest such organization in the region.
The Letter Carriers' Monument is a piece of public art by American artist Elliot Offner, located on a triangular plot formed by North 2nd Street, North Plankinton Avenue and West Wells Street in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the United States. Created in 1989, the monument depicts three letter carriers and was commissioned in celebration of the centennial of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC).
A food drive is a form of charity that is conducted by a group of individuals or a corporation to stockpile and distribute foodstuffs to people who cannot afford food.
Vincent Raymond Sombrotto was a letter carrier at Grand Central Station in New York City, and the 16th president of the National Association of Letter Carriers between 1978 and 2002. He was born in Manhattan in 1923 to an Italian father and an Irish mother. Sombrotto became an official member of the National Association of Letter Carriers in 1947 and played a huge part in the U.S. postal strike of 1970. Sombrotto helped to expand the union into more than 100 cities and involved more than 200,000 new members. He retired in 2002 and finished with over 300,000 members and died in 2013 aged 89 at Port Washington, New York.
Second Harvest North Florida (SHNF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located in Jacksonville, Florida, that performs food rescue and redistribution to partner agencies in one quarter of Florida's 67 counties. The charitable organization has been active for over 30 years.
Louis Andrew "Drew" Von Bergen was an American journalist and press secretary, based in Washington D.C. Von Bergen was a national labor reporter for United Press International (UPI) from 1963 until 1985. Additionally, he became President of the National Press Club in 1980 and later served as the press secretary for former Ohio U.S. Senator Howard Metzenbaum.
