Postal workers praise donations for food drive (no national total yet)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/10/BAST17HSJI.DTL

John King, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, May 10, 2009

The men and women who deliver mail added another task to their rounds on Saturday: collecting food from customers along their routes.

And while it's too early to say whether Bay Area letter carriers reached their goal of collecting 775,000 pounds of food, the early indications are that this year's donations aren't just stray boxes and jars from the kitchen.

"We're getting 25-pound bags of rice or beans, and grocery bags filled with family staples" such as peanut butter and soup, said Margie Baria, who delivers mail in Walnut Creek. "People are giving generously, and also in a very thoughtful way."

The drive sponsored by the National Association of Letter Carriers has been held annually since 1993, but this year's received extra emphasis given how the recession has made more people turn to community food banks for assistance.

At the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, for instance, 204,000 individuals last month were helped either through meals served at shelters and nonprofit agencies, or by receiving supplies through the food bank's Family Harvest program.

That's 20 percent more than last summer, "and it's going up every week," said Poppy Pembroke, communications manager for Second Harvest. "The thing is, last year we budgeted for a 3 percent increase."

FULL story at link.

[MineralMan]

1. I shopped on Friday, and

bought a bunch of stuff for this drive. I buy only stuff that can be prepared effortlessly, since I know that many people who are receiving the stuff either don't or can't cook very well. Even though it sounds a little icky, canned soups and chili and other such things are one of the best things for these drives. So that's what I buy. I want people to eat it, not have to figure out how to cook it.

While dried beans and rice and that sort of thing go a lot farther, they all take more preparation than is convenient or possible for many recipients.

[Ernesto]

2. I gave @ the mail box!

[gblady]

3. It is a great drive....

It was inspiring to drive into town yesterday morning and see all the blue bags
hanging on, sitting on top of, or on the ground near mail boxes...
made me a bit teary to see the outpouring of giving.

I also went to the post office for stamps
and saw many people carrying in bags
and leaving them on the counter.

[dragonlady]

4. The reason this is done the day before Mother's Day

is that the letter carriers get out into the community and see what life is like probably more so than most people. They saw that mothers were having a hard time feeding their children (this was a number of years ago, of course, it's not a recent thing) and decided to do something to help. It's a wonderful project. And lots of volunteers come forth to help sort the food.

The city of Milwaukee collections were down somewhat this year because of the recession/depression, but even this hard-hit community came up with almost half a million pounds of food.

[Ocracoker16]

5. I was dissappointed that I was the only one on the block

I live in a middle class neighborhood. I would have hoped that others would have participated. It is so easy since the postal workers pick it up from your house. Ofcourse, this year the need is greater than ever. A pat on the back to everyone who participated. I will continue my weekly food offering to the foodbank and I encourage everyone to give what they can to foodbanks or make a donation.

[tilsammans]

6. I put my food donation out, but . . .

it didn't get picked up, even though mail was delivered. :shrug: WTF?

Guess I'll drop it off tomorrow at the P.O.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

8. You must have our mailman

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

7. We set out two full paper bags of food

Our mailman dropped off our mail, but didn't pick up the food. They didn't last year either (we lived in a different town then, so different mailman).

We'll be bringing the food over to the local Catholic Church. They have a food pantry.