The Letter Carriers (NALC) will be holding its 21st annual "Stamp Out Hunger" Food Drive on May 11. The food drive is the largest annual food collection day in the United States. In 2012, the drive collected more than 70 million pounds of food and it has collected nearly 1.2 billion pounds of food since it began in 1993.

Every year, the drive is held on the second Saturday in May, when letter carriers across the country collect non-perishable food donations from customers.  Donations are given directly to local food pantries and, in 2012, some 30 million people were served. While most food pantries get the bulk of their donations around Christmas and Thanksgiving, the NALC drive is done during the spring, when many food pantries are struggling.

NALC President Fredric Rolando said:

On the second Saturday of May each year, thousands of letter carriers step forward and join our co-workers, family members, friends and community partners to pick up those all-important and often heavy sacks of donated non-perishable food items left by mailboxes. To get us there takes the dedication of hundreds of branch food drive coordinators, who have spent the last few months ordering and mailing countless customer-reminder postcards, putting up food drive fliers and posters and so much more—often after spending the day delivering the mail.

Questions regarding the food drive should be directed to Will Fischer, AFL-CIO Community Services, at 202-637-5233 or at wfischer@aflcio.org.