Saturday is the National Association of Letter Carriers’ annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive, which is considered the largest single-day food drive in the U.S.
Since 1993, the drive has collected over 1.82 billion pounds of food.
Americans are asked to set out a bag of nonperishable food by their mailbox. Current and retired postal workers, in addition to volunteers, will help get those bags of food to local food banks.
"Letter carriers see firsthand the needs of their communities," NALC President Brian L. Renfroe said in a message to postal carriers. "It's time to once again meet those needs on May 13 with our food drive, just as we’ve done for 30 years running."
Families are struggling with reduced SNAP benefits
A pandemic-era emergency order gave maximum SNAP benefits to all who qualified, but now some households are seeing dramatic drops.
The NALC said the May date helps relieve summertime shortages food pantries experience as school lets out and holiday donations become depleted. Stamp Out Hunger is held annually on the second Saturday in May.
This year's Stamp Out Hunger follows a Feeding America report indicating the nation's food banks are encountering increasing demand. Part of the reason Feeding America cited is more than 20 states have stopped providing increased Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit amounts.
"The pandemic showed us what we can do as a nation when we rally together for a common goal. Public and private partnerships helped keep many individuals and families out of food insecurity," said Vince Hall, chief government relations officer at Feeding America. "As that support lapses, we are seeing effects across the country with increased demand at food banks."
Feeding America said this week that about 1 in 3 Americans facing hunger is unlikely to qualify for SNAP benefits.
