The U.S. Postal Service will hold their 21st annual “Stamp Out Hunger” campaign on Saturday, May 11th.  The public is asked to help fight hunger and bring hope to someone in need.

To participate, just fill a bag with non-perishable foods and leave it by your mailbox before your usual delivery time.   Suggested donations include items like canned meats, fish, soup, bottled juice, vegetables, pasta, cereal and rice that do not require refrigeration. Please do not include items that have expired or are in glass containers.

According to the National Association of Letter Carriers, 1 out of 6 Americans live at or below the poverty level.  In planning their national hunger campaign, the second Saturday in May was specifically chosen by NALC because food pantries’ shelves which were filled up through winter-holiday generosity are often bare or nearly so by late spring—a sad reflection of the reality that wide-spread hunger in America is a tough problem to solve. They also took into account that school programs that provide free or reduced-cost meals to students typically do not continue operation during summer months, according to NALC’s website http://www.nalc.org.

Last year, the food drive gathered more than 70 million pounds of food, bringing NALC’s Stamp Out Hunger Campaign’s grand total to 1.2 billion pounds collected over the last 21 years.

Spread the word about the campaign.  For more information, visit http://www.helpstampouthunger.com.