Postal carriers to collect food (This Saturday, tomorrow--Nationwide food pantry drive)

[Robbien]

Source: Herald

The National Association of Letter Carriers and the U.S. Postal Service will conduct its 16th annual nationwide food drive Saturday to help stock local food pantries. Postal customers may leave nonperishable food items by their mailboxes.

When the letter carrier delivers the mail, he or she will collect the food and return it to the local post office, and volunteers will deliver it to local food pantries, said Mike Montes, the food drive coordinator for the Crystal Lake post office.

Sixteen years ago, the letter carriers’ association decided that it wanted to give back to the community, Montes said. The group met with food banks and discovered that they often lacked food in the summer.

After a successful test run in 10 cities, the association expanded the food drive nationwide.

Read more: http://www.nwherald.com/articles/2008/05/09/news/local/doc482424c22d7e2713244390.txt

---

The Drive is for all fifty states

More info at the Postal Carriers' site
http://www.nalc.org/commun/foodrive/index.html

[YDogg]

1. I've wondered how many bags will be picked up by hungry folks

[Robbien]

2. If they are hungry

hungry enough to steal food meant for the hungry

then it really doesn't matter, does it

and it shouldn't stop people from giving away anything they have extra

[Warpy]

11. Right, I almost hope my neighbors help themselves

before the postman gets here. I don't want to give the poor guy a hernia!

[JerseygirlCT]

21. Exactly. Hungry is hungry

and that just saves a step, doesn't it?

[YDogg]

61. yup

[SharonAnn]

62. Don't know, but I now know that crows like Oreo cookies.

Last year I hung two grocery bags of food on my mailbox in the AM. As always, when giving to a food bank, I included some sweets for the kids. When I went out to get my mail at noon, a flock of crows by the mailbox flew away. I found that one bag was torn on the ground, the food in it had been pushed around, and that all that was left of the bag of Oreos was the wrapping and a few crumbs.

So now we know. Crows love Oreos. They don't like pasta or rice.

[dragonlady]

3. Thanks for posting this

Can we get it on the Greatest Page? And thanks to the postal workers who are helping out this way.

:toast:

[Cirque du So-What]

4. I'm trying - recommended!

Makes more sense than some of the threads emerging from GD-P that make it to the greatest page - the one that's the first page some people see here while they're surfing the net :nuke:

[Breeze54]

5. Just kick the one already there!

;)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5903612

[PittPoliSci]

6. we've been doing this at my plant for about a month now.

I work at the USPS Remote Encoding Center in Pittsburgh. We've been collecting a lot of money and food, we do it every year.

[RamboLiberal]

8. Thank you from a Pittsburgher for doing this

I got 3 sacks last night from "Big Bird". I like to buy stuff I'd like to eat, and stuff that kids will enjoy that is still nutrious.

[RC]

7. I'm giving them a sack of new stuff. There is no old or out dated

food in my sack. Most of it was bought last week, before I got the sack in my mail box.
I understand lots of people use this as an excuse to clean out their cupboards of the old out dated food stuff they aren't planning to use anymore. Before you give it away, think to yourself, would you fix/eat this? If no, then why give it to someone else to eat?

[Robbien]

12. All of the stuff I give away

is not too old, canned goods less than a year old is not too old is it?

The stuff looked good when I bought it, but it didn't get eaten or used in a recipe during the year.

And yes without this annual drive, I would keep it and someone here would eventually eat it, but why not give it away?

[RC]

13. Are the ends of the cans rounded? Boxes opened?

Most canned goods only a year old should be ok.

[JerseygirlCT]

23. Good reminder

What food pantries really don't need is to have to weed through everyone's outdated food.

Buy some new stuff. Pasta is relatively cheap and filling. Canned food lasts for a good long time. Tuna isn't really cheap maybe, but a little can go a long way, and that's some good protein.

[Baby Snooks]

36. The proteins...

Food pantries do not stock perishable items - no dairy products or meat or produce. So there is little protein in the sacks of food. Albacore tuna is usually double the price. But is not as laden with mercury as "chunk light" that most of us used to eat quite a bit of until we were confronted with the reality of mercury. Buy the albacore. Watch for sales. Often it is $1 a can. Not much more than "chunk light." Why watch for sales? This should not be just a one-day event and you should try to find out where your local food pantry, as opposed to food bank, is. Those who can afford to should commit to dropping off a sack or two of items once a month during the summer. Call them. Ask them what they need most. Instead of a sack of assorted items, buy a case of what they need most.

This will be a long hard summer as well as long hot summer and most food pantries will need more and more food. Most depend on food banks. Those sacks you buy in the grocery stores are then taken to the food banks which SELL the goods you've donated to the food pantries. Every case of tuna or chili or soup they get donated directly is one less case they have to buy. Find out where your nearest food pantry is. Be an angel. All year round. But especially this summer. More and more people will be turning to the food pantries as electric bills increase.

Most food pantries desperately need the proteins. Not just tuna. Spaghetti. Ravioli. Chili. Chicken. Ham. Corned beef. Always on the same aisle as the tuna. And don't forget soups. The 99 Cent Stores often carry "gourmet" products that were excess inventory for suppliers and the 99 Cent Store items are very popular with the volunteers at these food pantries. They carry things the food banks don't.

Pasta and rice and beans are nice. But imagine going home with nothing to eat but pasta and rice and beans. Or just tuna. Buy a case of spaghetti or soup or canned chicken breast or ham. Imagine the smile on someone's face when they get home after riding a bus with a sack or two of groceries and finding something really nice in the sack. Imagine the smile on someone's child's face.

And remember it could be you. Or your child. These are very bad times for everyone. Not just the poor. More and more of the middle-class are discovering they are no longer middle-class but poor.

Remember the example of the late Marjorie Merriweather Post who during the Depression actually worked the soup kitchens in Manhattan rather than just write a check and ignore the problem as so many of the wealthy did. Grateful that it wasn't her in the lines. But aware that it could be. She wrote bigger checks than she probably would have otherwise.

[tblue37]

49. Because I did home daycare for 18 years, I am very attuned to children.

I always include some treats in the sacks: snackpacks of pudding, boxes of jello, lollipops, and canned fruits and fruit cocktails, so they can have dessert occasionally. I also include peanut butter and jelly and spaghetti and canned sauce because kids like that, and condiments like catsup and mustard. I even include canned ravioli and Spaghettios, because although they are not that good for them, they are filling, and kids love them. Again, I am thinking about what a kid might be really happy to get to eat when food is short and all they get are beans and rice.

[maddezmom]

9. Thanks for the reminder

will set my stuff out tomorrow. :hi:

K&R

[shireen]

10. never thought i'd be competing with the USPS!

Darn! We just launched our food drive at work today!

Hopefully enough people at work don't know about the USPS food drive, and donate to our drive. :P

[JerseygirlCT]

24. Hey, that's a contest where everyone wins, right? nt

[phrigndumass]

14. Kick

:kick:

[Robeson]

15. Thanks for posting this Robbien. It is a very worthy effort...

...:thumbsup:

[LisaM]

16. I always do this

and they leave a nice thank-you note!

I go get new stuff, generally, and try to include stuff like peanut butter that they can use if they somehow can't cook. This year I have some little applesauce containers.

[MissDeeds]

17. This is a great annual event - but

Our mail carrier is a complete asshat. Not only do we have to retrieve mail from our front yard periodically, but he fails to collect the food we buy and leave out each spring for collection! It's beyond belief. Last year, I put a big bag of stuff out next to the mailbox, and the guy left the mail and didn't pick up the food. We took it to the post office ourselves the following Monday. And yes. we've complained, but to no avail.

This is an important program. It shouldn't be abused.

[bagimin]

26. As a carrier of twenty four years..

allow me to apologize. Generally, carriers that have their own routes take pride in them and offer good service.

[MissDeeds]

32. Thanks. I understand our carrier is the exception.

During my childhood, our neighbor was a mail carrier. He was a wonderful man, and I still have fond memories of him and his wife. We really like the folks at our local post office, and know everyone by name. The fellow who delivers our mail is just one bad apple. I've tried to talk with him and tactfully express our concerns, but he still spills mail as he walks (a horror in this day of identity theft!) and leaves important documents in the magazine rack, where they sometimes blow into the yard on windy days. We're at wits end.

But the food collection is important, and if he chooses not to collect what we leave out, we'll take it to the post office.

By the way, bagimin, thanks for what you and your fellow mail carriers do. It is a hard job, and one that is too often taken for granted.

[tblue37]

50. My mailman--one of them, I have several--delivers mail to any

old address. The numbers don't even have to be similar. I have had to take mail to the proper recipient many blocks from where I live, and sometimes not even on the same street!

He also won't climb the two steps to my porch to pick up my mail unless he has mail to deliver to me, and sometimes not even when he delivers the mail. Until some bills that wear at risk of being late were not picked up once, I had no idea that the mailman actually doesn't have to pick up mail if he doesn't want to. When I called the main post office to complain when my bills were not picked up, the guy there told me the mailman didn't have to pick up my mail at all!

I bet you didn't know that.

Since the US Mail service is notorious for doing time and efficiency studies and pressuring their employees to speed up, I can understand why some mailmen prefer to cut corners like this.

Do you remember the female mail person who was fired because a time and efficiency "expert" decided that she could finish her route faster if she took longer steps? How ridiculous! A person's gait develops over a lifetime, and it is an adjustment to that person's physiology. It is not that easy, especially as an adult, to lengthen one's steps, and it can actually cause harm to the back, hips, and other joints!

[rasputin1952]

35. I use a PO Box...but our carrier delivers some stuff here, and the

other Apt's regularly get mail. The times when I catch him he's exceptionally nice, although he does listen to Limbaugh on a small radio attached to his belt...:eyes: Exceptionally personable individual, and his "replacements" have all been grand as well.

Where I was working, we had a young lady carrier who was always smiling, and the business next door would complain about not getting mail when they thought it was due, as if she had anything to do with the situation. I called the PO and gave the supervisor she was under a good review of her, and said I thought that a good call would always be welcome. The supervisor said good or bad, all things wound up in the carrier's file, and actually, she rarely got bad calls, but fewer good ones.

I have great respect for those who take care of the mail being delivered...while the guys at the top of the ladder might leave something to be desired, those who do the grunt work take their profession seriously and do all they can to ensure we get what what is coming...even if it is 12#'s of junk, they get it to us.

Thanks for your service, we appreciate it.

[davidinalameda]

41. my dad walked a route for 33 years

you have a way to go to catch him!

:hi:

[rasputin1952]

27. You can take your items to your local PO...

I thought about you calling and complaining, but if possible be there at the normal delivery time, and hand him the bag...w/a smile and a "Thank You!"...perhaps that's all he needs...O8)

[MissDeeds]

29. Good idea

I'll try to watch for him, but he comes by anywhere from 12:30 to 4:30.

[flamingyouth]

18. Thank you for the reminder.

This is a great program. This year it's needed more than ever.

[emilyg]

19. kick as a reminder.

[blondie58]

20. thank you, everyone for your help

I am a proud member of NALC Branch #47, so I have seen firsthand how much food we collect. This drive comes at a time when food banks are starting to have their supplies depleted. There are many school children who get a good meal at lunch, but without this help, they would go hungry during the summer. The working poor are starting to need this help now, also.


Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!O8)

[Robbien]

30. It was kinda cute last year

We put out two big cartons of food on the porch. When the mail carrier got up on the porch and read the 'food drive' sign I placed on the boxes he let out an excited "YES". We all smiled at the breakfast table.

You are very welcome.

And thanks to you and your coworkers for your labor in this drive.

[TroglodyteScholar]

22. I live in an apartment complex with a couple hundred residents

And there was no food at the mailboxes when I dropped mine off about half an hour ago.

We're so up our own asses.

[Catchawave]

25. K&R....we have the whole block in my neighborhood

cleaning out their pantries....:toast:

[atjrpsych]

28. Are they accepting mostly canned goods or anything?

Do you know if this food drive only accepts canned foods or do they accept food packaged in other ways? I didn't know this existed until the posting and am happy I am now aware of this.

[Robbien]

33. They accept just about everything non-perishable with unopened packaging, except glass

Glass gets broken in transit. If it is not expired and okay for you and your family to eat and there are no broken seals on the packaging, then it should be just fine.

Not just cans. Unopened boxes of crackers, cookies, rice, etc. are good too.

[question everything]

39. Bags of beans, boxes of cereal, pasta

I often include one of those Hamburger Helper and Tuna Helper.

[pinto]

31. Kick.

:thumbsup:

[myrna minx]

34. Thanks for the reminder. I just emailed everyone I know about this.

I almost forgot about it.

[question everything]

37. Filled the bag (that was provided by the carrier)

ready to be placed by the mail box tomorrow.

[Shoelace]

38. me too, he picked it up today

[Biscottiii]

40. Thanks for the idea! Next year I will put it out earlier, so it can be collected sooner.

I do this every year and feel guilty that the carrier has to lug it all on the same day, they must get pretty tired. I always put in soups and tuna because even if someone didn't have cooking facilities they could still manage to eat some protein. It never fails, soon after I send out the USPS bag, I end up getting cravings for tuna & require a trip to the store. lol

Just curious. I know they simultaneously keep delivering the mail (probably not the extra advertisements) that day.

So, do they have to keep moving their trucks every half block, just to be able to tuck it all in? Surely wouldn't be hauling all those bags a couple of blocks. I've always wondered how the Postal Carrier manages it? Never see them, just get the nice thankyou that I save for income tax purposes.

[Judi Lynn]

42. Thank you for the reminder. I had forgotten completely until seeing your post! n/t

[myrna minx]

43. A Saturday morning kick. n/t

[lisa58]

44. Thanks for the reminder...

...I just came to DU saw this thread and put the food out by the mailbox.

[DesertRat]

45. Kick

[Joanne98]

46. Was this today?

[tblue37]

47. I am frustrated that this was not more actively publicized. Every year I watch for it,

and I go out and purchase about 4 bags full of nutritious groceries to donate. But this year, I never even heard about it until someone on DU posted it! It was late last night when I read it, and I was too exhausted to drive to the store. I did raid my own cupboards and was able to fill 2 bags with cans, but the selection wasn't as good as what I would have purchased, since my diet is kind of limited right now because of meds I take that make me sick. Mostly I had canned soups, black beans, fruits, vegetables, and a few pudding snack packs.

If I had gone to the store for it, I would have included macaroni and cheese, spaghetti and jars of sauce, condiments like mustard and catsup, rice, bags of lentils and beans, peanut butter and other nutritious and filling foods, plus some treats for kids.

I am sad that they didn't publicize the food drive loudly this year. Like most people, I am tired and very busy all the time, working to make ends meet. I seldom have time even to take care of my own errands, much less drive around to buy food and drop it off at food banks, so I am glad when the food drive reminds me and gives me an opportunity to donate conveniently. I actively watch for notice of the food drive, yet I almost missed it this year! Our local newspaper finally put a notice in just this morning, but that is way too late to do much good.

[DesertRat]

48. Our letter carrier left a plastic bag with info on it

Otherwise I might not have heard about it in time. I try to drop things off at the local food bank at least once a month. They are in great need these days.

[Robbien]

53. One way I remember it is that it is around Mother's Day

When I start hearing all the Mother's day ads I start thinking about clearing my shelves and packing up the food bags.

Think Mother's Day==Food for the Hungry

By the way, most food pantries have a real good purchasing system. A dollar you spend yourself on food can go ten times as far if you just hand that dollar over to the food bank.

I put all my extra food out on the porch and then include some money to be given to the food banks.

[tblue37]

51. Oh, and K&R. n/t

[progressoid]

52. Yep - donated today.

[libnnc]

54. Are all carriers who left reminders yesterday supposed to pick up today?

[Robbien]

55. Yes. If yours didn't

Perhaps you could call your post office and find out if they have a schedule to be collecting the ones the postal carrier missed on Saturday

USPS site to find your local postal office responsible for your address
http://www.switchboard.com/usps.1355/dir/6_0/index.htm?mem=1355

[libnnc]

56. I've tried that

they're closed today

I'll just take it myself when the food bank opens on Monday.

Not sure why they would deliver a bag and a reminder yesterday if they weren't going to participate today.

[Robbien]

57. Probably a personnel scheduling change

Your regular weekend postal carrier signed up for the drive, but it sounds as if you got an unscheduled postal carrier who wouldn't/couldn't participate.

That sucks. You should still call the postal office on Monday and let them know what happened so they can be aware of the problem for next year's drive.

[orleans]

59. i plan on calling monday (if i remember) because we didn't get a pick up here.

and it's not as if the neighborhood was overwhelmed w/donations. i didn't see a bag on anyone else's porch.

[orleans]

58. we didn't our food bag picked up either.

the last couple of years they had vans going around with people hopping out and grabbing the donations--we brought ours back in the house at five o'clock.

[llmart]

60. It saddens me tremendously......

that in the wealthiest country in the world, we have to have the postal carriers pick up food for the hungry. NO ONE in America should go hungry! We throw out tons of food every day in this country. This is 2008!

I'm sorry for the rant but we are not only the wealthiest but the most obese. What is wrong with us? If we can't even solve the problem of hunger in our country, why do we think we can solve problems in other countries?

I'll bet the wedding feast that the Bush Crime Family is enjoying is sumptuous.