The month of May can be an exciting time of the year. Our Garden Project community gardeners are drying out from spring showers and beautifying our neighborhoods. We can finally put away those snow shovels, and pull out our grills.
Unfortunately, May also marks a time of anxiety for parents and their children. These families are not worried about optimal grilling weather. They’re worried about having any food on the table at all. As schools begin to let out in late May and early June, children no longer have access to daily meals provided by their lunchroom. For working parents, this means juggling summer learning programs, babysitters and added food expenses on their budgets.
This is why the upcoming Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is so important. Taking place on Saturday May 14, the Stamp Out Hunger drive is one of our biggest pushes to gather food resources before the summer months. Most of the food supply we gathered from the winter holidays has been distributed, and we need your help to fill our warehouse back up to meet the need of these families. We want to make sure no parent has to choose between paying the electric bill and buying food. No parent should choose between filling up the car to get to work and feeding their children. We want our communities’ children to focus on being kids – not worrying about going hungry.
All you have to do to participate is leave a bag or box of non-perishable goods by your mailbox Saturday May 14, 2016. As your carrier delivers your mail, he or she will pick up your donation. We are looking for canned, boxed and bottled good. Mac and cheese boxes, non-refrigerated juice bottles and canned vegetables are a great example of the types of items we are collecting. Unfortunately, we can’t take frozen or “home cooked” items for this drive.
I would be remiss if I failed to mention the hard work of all our local Letter Carriers and volunteers from Capital Area United Way. They are our logistics force picking up donations all over the area and delivering them to our warehouse. And of course, we wouldn’t have any food to collect without generous donations like yours.
Thank you all for caring.
Joe Wald
Executive Director, GLFB