United Way Supports National Letter Carriers’ Annual Food Drive, May 8th
Somerset County, NJ- United Way Worldwide and local United Ways around the country are proud to be a sponsor of the nation’s largest annual food drive to combat hunger that is being conducted by the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) on Saturday, May 8th. On that day, letter carriers will collect non-perishable donations from homes as they deliver mail along their postal routes.
The 18th annual NALC National Food Drive to “Stamp Out Hunger” is the largest one-day food drive in the nation. Carriers collected a record 73.4 million pounds of food during last year’s drive. The drive is held annually on the second Saturday in May in over 10,000 cities and towns in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam.
“With historical unemployment along with affected disaster areas, hundreds of families in our community are struggling to make ends meet and put food on the table,” said Philip A. Brown III, CEO of Somerset County United Way. “Somerset County United Way applauds the National Association of Letter Carriers’ efforts in coordinating this national food drive and is grateful for the awareness it creates in encouraging us to support local families.”
Donations from this year’s drive are expected to push the overall total collected since the annual drive began 18 years ago to over 1 billion pounds. The total currently is 982.7 million pounds.
Donations will be collected by more than 1,400 local branches of the 295,000 member postal union and delivered to food banks, pantries and shelters that serve the communities where they are collected. Assisting in the effort are rural letter carriers and other postal employees, as well as members of other unions and thousands of civic volunteers.
Persons who have questions about the drive at their location should ask their letter carrier or contact their local postal office.
About Somerset County United Way
An independent nonprofit organization, Somerset County United Way helps people who live and work in Somerset County through its vision that all residents possess a living income that will be attained through achieving financial stability, healthy lifestyles, and life readiness. United Way’s mission is to lead a caring community to create solutions that transform people’s lives. Give. Advocate. Volunteer. LIVE UNITED. To learn more about how you can LIVE UNITED, contact Somerset County United Way at (908) 725 – 6640 or visit www.scuw.org.