On Saturday, May 11, Harvest Hope Food Bank will join forces with the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) to help Stamp Out Hunger across 20 SC counties. Now in its 21st year, the annual food drive coordinates regional and national efforts to provide hunger relief to the millions of Americans struggling to put food on the table.
To participate in the 21st Stamp Out Hunger food drive, residents are encouraged to leave a sturdy bag containing non-perishable foods, such as canned soup, canned vegetables, pasta, rice or cereal next to their mailbox prior to the time of regular mail delivery on Saturday, May 11.
South Carolina letter carriers will collect these food donations as they deliver the mail and Harvest Hope staff and volunteers will collect the donated food from area post offices.
Last year’s Stamp Out Hunger food drive gathered more than 225,950 pounds of food for Harvest Hope in just one day.
This equated to 130,687 meals for the Midlands, 42,812 meals for the Pee Dee, 120,235 meals for the Upstate, or a total of 293,734 meals for Harvest Hope’s 20 county service area.
Now in its 21st year, the Stamp Out Hunger food drive is the nation’s largest single-day food drive, having collected more than one billion pounds of food since its inception in 1993.
In 2012, generous Americans donated more than 70 million pounds of food, which marked the ninth consecutive year that at least 70 million pounds were collected.